
Book_ 'IK1^.?± 



ROMANCE 

OF 

ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 



Romance 



OF 



Ashby-de-la-Zouch 
Castle 



BY 

CHARLES H POYNTON 

(Felloiv of the Royal HistoHcal Society) 



3JSirmingbam 
CORNISH BROTHERS Ltd 

1902 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER. PAGE. 

PROEM vii 

INTEODUCTORY : LEICESTEESHIRE IN THE 

EAELY SEVENTEENTH CENTUEY ... ix 

I. THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE ... 1 

n. THE AVENGER OF BLOOD ... ... 32 

III. THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH ... 56 

IV. THE CONSPIRATOR 85 

V. THE ROYAL EARL 110 

VI. THE REIGN OF ECONOMY 130 

Vn. THE GOLDEN AGE 140 

Vm. THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY 159 

IX. THE FIGHT FOR LICHFIELD 187 

X. QUEEN AND CONVOY 209 

XL DISASTROUS NASEBY 228 

XIL SURRENDER OF THE CASTLE 255 



PROEM. 

THE ivy clings with sinuous tendrils to the gray- 
old battlements of the castle of Ashby-de-la- 
Zouch ; the green grass has carpeted the floors upon 
which brave knights and fair ladies were wont to 
loiter in olden days; the winter winds whistle 
through the halls where Kings and Queens have 
feasted, where minstrels have sung their lays, and 
where jesters in cap and bells have made merri- 
ment, but a halo of romance will continue to 
envelope the noble pile so long as its crumbling 
stones stand upon the green turf. 

It is the ruined home of the Huntingdons, and 
owes its decrepitude, not to the wasting hand of 
time, but to the penalty of the splendid loyalty of 
its dead lords to their sovereigns. Had its lords 
been time-servers, their fortress home might have 
survived the centuries and remained intact to-day, 
a mere anachronism, a place without a history. 

A more distinguished fate awaited it, after an 
inseparable association with English history for 
near two centuries, and a defiant resistance of the 
Roundhead artillery its governor made an honour- 
able capitulation. 

King Charles about to become a voluntary 



Vm PROEM. 

prisoner, the Cavaliers dispersed and their cause 
paralysed, the supremacy of the revolutionary 
party assured; it had been a wanton waste of 
human life to hold out longer. 

A Hastings, a warrior and a statesman, reared its 
massive walls, and a Hastings, a Courtier and a 
Cavalier defended them against the roaring cannon 
of General Fairfax. 

The purpose of this volume is to recall the 
exploits of the dead and gone Earls of Huntingdon 
and especially to linger over the romantic story of 
Henry Hastings, the friend of Prince Rupert and 
the liege vassal of the Second Stuart King, who 
held the Midlands in his sovereign's interest when 
many wavered and many deserted, standing stoutly 
by the Royal cause. 

Throughout their long proprietorship of their 
palace fortress, the earls dispensed hospitality with 
a princely profusion. Illustrious visitors have 
found entertainment in their splendid halls, but no 
earl ever welcomed a traitor through the castle's 
portals. Prisoners have languished in its 
chambers, but they were enemies of the King. 

From the hour the first baron entered leading the 
Lady Catherine by the hand, to the sad day when 
Henry Hastings, with gloomy mien, delivered the 
keys to Colonel Needham, its lords have held their 
stronghold for the King. 



INTHODUCTION. 

LEICESTEESHIRE IN THE EAELY 

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

LOYAIi AREA. 

When King Charles I. issued his Commission 
of Array for Leicestershire to the Earl of Hunting- 
don and others, in June, 1642, the district destined 
to yield him the most active support in that county, 
may be roughly located in the area of a triangle, 
the apex of which would be the town of Ashby-de- 
la-Zouch, and the extremities of the base the towns 
of Leicester and Loughborough. 

RIVAL LEADERS. 

Two powerful families dominated that district, 
the Huntingdons and the Stamfords. 

Ashby and Loughborough acknowledged the 
Earl of Huntingdon as feudal lord, obeying his 
mandates with traditional subserviency, but the 
sterner and more independent burgesses of 
Leicester, adhering passionately to the parlia- 
mentary cause, accepted the Earl of Stamford and 
his son. Lord Grrey of Groby, as their leaders. 
These noblemen resided about five miles from 
Leicester at historic Bradgate, the former home of 
that sweet and winsome maiden Lady Jane Grey, 
of fateful memory. 



X INTRODUCTION. 

The Earl of Huntingdon occupied the magnifi- 
cent palace fortress of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, one of 
the most formidable strongholds in England, and 
popularly known as a maiden castle, because it had 
never hauled down its flag at the imperious com- 
mand of a foeman. Ashby-de-la-Zouch enjoyed 
the distinguished honour of being thd only town in 
the county that possessed a castle of any service- 
able strength. The brick structure at Kirby 
Muxloe, the original home of the Hastings family, 
may be disregarded, since it could lay no claim to 
be considered of any practical military value at the 
outbreak of the Civil War ; whilst Leicester Castle 
had long been disused. 

UNWARLIKE LEICESTER. 

Although Leicester since the Roman Conquest 
had ranked as a walled town, its inhabitants no 
longer regarded the fortifications as necessary 
adjuncts to their prosperity, but simply as relics of 
a ruder age. The pursuits of commerce had long 
monopolised their attention. They had so con- 
tinuously enjoyed the blessings of peace, that at 
the accession of King Charles the bare mention of 
any probability of war on English soil would have 
been ridiculed as an anomaly. In the long 
succession of battles and sieges that marked the 
progress of the wars of the Roses, when the scourge 
of war desolated many places, Leicester remained 
unmolested and acquiesced in the authority of the 
king de facto. A noticeable instance of this in- 
discriminate loyalty occurred in 1485. King 
Richard III. visited the town on his way to the 
fateful field of Bosworth, and stayed a night at 
the Blue Boar Inn, where the municipal authorities 
visited their liege lord and did homage to him. 



INTRODUCTION. XI 

TKe next day lie quitted tlie town at tlie head of 
an imposing army in marshal pageant. The 
people watched him with uncovered heads as he 
rode clad in shining armour and with the crown 
upon his helmet. Passing over the West Bridge 
he kicked a buttress carelessly with his iron-clad 
heel. An old woman murmured that on his return 
his head should strike that buttress. Tradition 
asserts that events fulfilled the prophesy. Several 
days after, the new king's soldiers brought the 
Royal Crookbank's corpse back to Leicester; 
thrown naked over a horse's back, head downward. 
But no citizen, high or low, waited at the entrance 
of the town to do reverence to the dead, and accord 
him decent burial, only a few humble Grey Friar 
Monks, and they out of sweet charity, laid him in 
consecrated soil; and said masses for his soul's 
repose. As they had received Richard a few days 
before without demonstration, so they accorded 
Richmond a passive reception. Another man wore 
the crown, it mattered not to them. He was the 
King. On the eve of the terrible conflict about to 
desolate the county, the walls and forts of Leicester 
had fallen into a state of dilapidation, and as a 
result neither when stormed by Charles' army a 
few days before the Battle of Naseby, nor im- 
mediately afterwards when summoned to surrender 
by victorious Fairfax, could the garrison offer an 
effective resistance. 

The influence of the lord of Bradgate over 
Leicester may be described as political rather than 
hereditary, that of his son, Lord Grey of Groby, 
as religious rather than political. 

The Earldom of Stamford was a recent creation 
of James I. 



Xll INTRODUCTION. 

EARL OF HUNTINGDON. 

The Earl of Huntingdon boasted a fifth suc- 
cession to his earldom, and a seventh succession to 
his barony. He traced his direct descent from 
that strong and loyal supporter of Edward lY., Lord 
William Hastings. Through the successive reigns 
of Sordid E-ichmond, of Spendthrift Henry, of the 
bigot Mary, of Brilliant Elizabeth and of Pedantic 
James, the Earls had maintained a foremost 
position amongst the noble families of England, 
taking their share of legislative responsibility, and 
manifesting a high-minded and chivalrous loyalty 
to the person and the throne of the reigning 
SoA^ereign. As Bardon Hill rears its granite form 
towards the clouds, over the hillocks and the trees, 
dwarfing them by comparison with its massive 
stature, so the Earls of Huntingdon in chivalrous 
honour and princely hospitality overtopped the 
social life of Leicestershire. In Leicester town 
for over a century they had exercised predominant 
power. In 1606, during the lord-lieutenancy of 
the fifth Earl, serious riots broke out in the town 
over the enclosure of some neighbouring common 
lands. The Earl calmly erected a gibbet in the 
market place to overawe the rioters and restore 
peace. The rioters were well aware that, if pushed 
to extremity. Lord Huntingdon would not hesitate 
to employ the dread machinery of death, but at the 
same time they resolved not to abandon their right 
to the use of the common land, so a mob destroyed 
the gallows, and dispersed to their homes, con- 
gratulating themselves on having effected their 
purpose. On the following morning they found 
another gallows in the place of the one they had 
destroyed, and an armed band of Ashby retainers 
on guard at its foot. Nay, his lordship's anger 



INTRODUCTION. Xlll 

did not end there, for he despatched a letter to the 
Mayor and Town Clerk, in which he censured them 
for not maintaining peace in the town, and ordered 
them to remain in their own houses for several days 
voluntary prisoners, as a punishment for their 
offence, a penalty the culprits meekly submitted 
to. Yet the earls enjoyed an immense personal 
popularity in Leicester. The Council always 
sought their approval of any civic reforms they 
contemplated, and regarded no great function as 
complete unless they could persuade the reigning 
earl to grace it with his presence. 

King James I. on several occasions visited the 
town, each time accompanied by Lord Huntingdon. 
Contemporaneous records, both municipal and 
private, evidence the close association of the Lord 
of Ashby with the Leicester people in weal or woe. 

THE PLAGUE. 

In the early years of the 17th century the plague 
raged in Leicester. It Avas a time of suffering and 
despair for the residents, but of unusual activity 
(though unproductive) for the City Fathers. They 
exerted themselves vigorously to combat the 
epidemic. They ordered chains to be stretched 
across the bridges in order to prevent the exit of 
citizens from the toA^ni and the entrance of 
strangers. They erected barricades at the ends 
of the streets to destroy all intercourse between the 
residents of different streets. They decreed that 
occupants of infected houses should paint a red 
cross on their doors as a warning to their neigh- 
bours, and in order to ensure obedience stationed 
patrols armed with bolts in the streets com- 
missioned to shoot down any infected person who 
dared to show himself abroad, but no conception 
of sanitary science dawned upon their minds. 



XIV INTEODIJCTION. 

In these dark and anxious days the corporation 
found a steady adviser and a ready helper in the 
Golden Earl, and the highway by Bradgate echoed 
the ring of the horses' hoofs of the messengers who 
passed to and fro daily between Leicester and 
Ashby. 

It is pleasant to note the readiness of the town 
authorities to assist the Earl in his necessity. 
Perhaps no member of the long line of English 
sovereigns honoured his great lords with the costly 
favour of his royal presence as a guest so frequently 
as did the English Solomon. King James' re- 
peated visits to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, accompanied 
always by his suite, taxed even the splendid re- 
sources of the Golden Earl, and overtaxed the 
accommodation within the castle. In order that 
no charge of inhospitality might be associated with 
his name, the generous lord built the original 
manor house within the pleasaunce, and although 
the consequences spelt retrenchment, and even loss 
of lands, he never faltered in the right royal wel- 
come he accorded to his liege lord. 

On a memorable royal visit in 1617 Lord 
Huntingdon entertained His Majesty with princely 
hospitality. The nobility and gentry of the neigh- 
bourhood poured into the castle to greet the King, 
and enjoy the Earl's meat and drink. Thirty 
knights, clad in velvet and wearing golden chains 
around their necks, waited at table. To the King's 
great annoyance, Lord Stanhope, shrewd and 

A ROYAL VISIT. 

economical, failed to put in an appearance, and he 
accordingly despatched a messenger to command 
his attendance. On his arrival the King remon- 
strated with him on his disloyalty, but added : " I 



INTEODITCTION. XV 

excuse you, because people say you are mad." " I 
may be mad, my liege lord," Stanhope retorted, 
*' but not half so mad as my Lord Huntingdon, who 
sujffiers himself to be worried by such a pack of 
bloodhounds." 

The Leicester Council knew by experience the 
cost of royal favours, and a graceful sympathy 
prompted them to despatch a present to the Earl 
of a yoke of oxen, together with £14 in money to 
purchase a hogshead of wine. 

As the Tudor Sovereigns had done, so the Stuart 
Kings quite understood the exalted social pre- 
eminence, and the vast local influence of the lords 
of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and regarded them as strong 
bulwarks of their throne. At Queen Elizabeth's 
decease, her successor. King James of Scotland, 
issued orders to George, the Fourth Earl, to journey 
to London and proclaim his accession, for Royal 
blood flowed in his veins, as the direct descendant 
of the Duke of Clarence, and when King Charles 
resolved to set loose the dogs of war in the fair 
realm of England, it was to the Golden Earl, pre- 
maturely aged, and a recluse, that he addressed 
his first commission of array. 

OLDEN DAYS. 

It is difficult to push back the finger on the clock 
of time for three centuries, and understand the 
social life of the early 17th century, but the works 
of a few authors of that period survive the inroads 
of the moth and worm, and musty records have 
been unearthed, a study of which rewards our 
pains. Human Nature has always remained 
uniform and invariable, but the passing of the 
centuries effects many changes in social order. 
Sixteenth and seventeenth century books have a 



XVI INTRODUCTION. 

quaintness all their own that fascinates the reader 
of antiquarian instincts. They carry the mind 
back to another age, and to another environment, 
and point to men and women moving about to their 
allotted tasks, as actors move upon a stage. We 
see the homes they lived in, and the very clothes 
they wore. Our authors are autocrats, we may not 
ask them questions, but the interest of the story 
they tell us never flags. An anonymous merchant of 
Lombard Street has bequeathed to us a description 
of a journey from the Metropolis to Leicester in 
the reign of James I., in which he dilates upon the 
rich red lands of the county, that produced good 
corn of all sorts both in the fields and enclosures. 
He notes the many little towns that dot the land- 
scape giving pleasure to the traveller's eye, and the 
farms that are stocked with excellent breeds of 
sheep and cattle. The agricultural implements 
are antiquated and primitive, for the ploughs are 
destitute of wheels ; but he is chiefly impressed by 
the rich, deep soil. 

The red lands of Leicestershire in the first half 
of the 17th century yielded a fine quality of wheat, 
barley, rye, oats, and beans. The inhabitants 
constructed their houses of wood, clay, or cement. 
ISTone but substantial persons could build with brick 
or stone. More than a third of the acreage of the 
county consisted of forest, unenclosed land and 
marshes. The farmers were generally ignorant of 
the value of underground drainage. No coal mines 
and few brickyards disfigured the landscape. A 
delightful sylvan picturesqueness everywhere 
reigned. On the marshes rushes and reeds grew 
in profusion, furnishing a shelter for wild fowl. 
The heaths blazed in the sunshine with blending 
colours of the purple heather and the golden gorse. 



INTRODUCTION. XVll 

TKe streanivS, fringed with willows, abounded in 
trout, and the resplendent kingfisher bounded from 
bank to bank. 

Parochial authorities paid little or no attention 
to the roads, which were seamed and scarred in dry 
weather by ugly and dangerous ruts, and in rainy 
seasons were like ploughed fields, and almost im- 
passable for the few existing vehicles. The turn- 
pikes did evidence a little attention, but they were 
often almost overgrown with grass. The wheels 
of coaches frequently stuck in the mud, and 
passengers had to cower in the wet and cold, while 
the guard hurried to the nearest farmhouse for 
assistance. Streams crossed the roads and im- 
peded progress. In tempestuous weather drowning 
accidents often occurred at these fords. Our 
ancestors seldom built bridges, except over fords 
of an unusually dangerous character. 

Its produce of corn and wool composed the chief 
wealth of the county. Leicestershire has always 
enjoyed a certain reputation for its wool. Markets 
for wool and corn were held at Leicester, Ashby-de- 
la-Zouch, Loughborough, Market Harborough, 
Hinckley, and Melton Mowbray. We are in- 
debted to the Hev. William Harrison, M.A., who 
in his day held the appointments of Household 
Chaplain to Lord Cobham, rector of Radwinter in 
Essex, vicar of Wimbish in the same county, and 
canon of Windsor, for a graphic description of 
every- day life in Elizabethan times. With very 
little improvement similar conditions prevailed in 
the early Stuart period. A study of Harrison's 
book enables us to understand the busy activity of 
a market town, and how it attracted the populace 
of a radius of a dozen miles once every week with 
the produce of the land, and in return supplied the 
1 



XVIU INTRODUCTION. 

villages with articles for daily consumption. 

MARKETS. 

The market town kept the neighbourhood in- 
formed of local and national news. 

The stage coaches from the metropolis and the 
large provincial towns changed horses at the prin- 
cipal inn, consequently the host might always be 
relied upon for the latest information. He took 
care to provide his bar parlour with a weekly news- 
paper as an attraction to the well-to-do tradesmen, 
who resorted there to read and discuss current 
affairs. Even the clergyman would sometimes 
look in to sip his tankard of brown ale and glance 
at the news. 

The pedlar carried the news from village to 
village, calling at the cottages of the peasantry 
and the homesteads of the farmers to sell his wares, 
and receive entertainment in return for the tales 
he could tell. A pedlar's visit to a farmstead 
caused a stir. At night after the cattle had been 
housed and foddered, and the housemaids had done 
their work, the members of the household would 
gather round the wide fireplace, with its blazing 
fire, and, after lighting the candles, listen to his 
weird stories of murders, highway robberies, and 
public executions. 

The high street of the market town consisted of 
irregular houses with queer gables and latticed 
windows. The good old trades of grocer, chandler, 
saddler, currier, tailor, flourished unchecked by the 
fierce competition of modern life,, and the creaking 
signs and curious emblems of the tradesmen sur- 
mounted their shop windows. 

On one day every week the district round the 
market town became a scene of animation. Farmers 



INTRODUCTION. XIX 

on horseback, with wives or daughters seated be- 
hind them on the pillions ; squires in their cum- 
brous coaches ; and peasant w^omen trudging on 
foot ; all made for the town. The carriers' wagons, 
creaking under their heavy freights of farm pro- 
duce, often blocked the narrow roads, causing 
ebullitions of anger. Then, as now, the rich 
flourished, and the poor went to the wall. Harrison 
complains of the evasion of the assize of bread, 
expressing commiseration for the poor artificer and 
householder which tilleth no land, but labouring 
all the week to buy a bushel or two of grain on 
market day, can have there no corn for his money, 
because the bodgers have formed a ring. The 
^ood-hearted old parson disliked a bodger as we 

BODGERS. 

detest a money-lender. The bodger would buy up 
all the corn in the market. Sometimes he bought 
on his own account, at other times he acted as agent 
for some wealthy landowner. Then he raised the 
prices, despite the laws a paternal government had 
enacted to regulate them, causing the poor artificer 
to return home sad-hearted and empty-handed. At 
Michaelmas the small farmers often had to sell 
corn to pay their rents. The bodger bought it up. 
As a consequence householders could not purchase 
corn even in the villages where it was grown, and 
hunger and destitution prevailed. 

At the close of a market the farmers found it 
necessary to button up their pockets, and examine 
their pistols, as well as arrange to journey home- 
wards in groups, to avoid the attentions of Will 
jSTevision, the notorious highwayman, and others 
of his kidney, who patrolled the turnpikes and lanes 
of Leicestershire. The very hostlers who saddled 



XX INTRODUCTION. 

the farmers' horses and held them in the inn yard 
while they mounted, often gave the highwayman 
information of their movements. It was woe to the 
unlucky yeoman or tipping cattle dealer who 
lingered too long over his tankard at the King's 
Head. 

Each market town largely monopolised its own 
district. 

In 1617 King James issued a proclamation for- 
bidding the sale of both home and foreign wool at 
any other than the towns of England specified in 
the document in which the name of Leicester did 
not appear. The jealous merchants approached 
the Duke of Buckingham on the matter. They 
knew by experience the potency of hogsheads of 
canary to conciliate noble lords. At Lord 
Buckingham's request the name of Leicester was 
inserted on the list. The Leicester merchants 
had been endeavouring for nearly a century to 
draw the entire wool trade of the county ; and thus 
create a monopoly. With this object in view they 
had built a Wool Hall in High Cross Street; but 
the farmers preferred to deal with old acquaint- 
ances at their own markets, and the Wool Hall 
proved a failure. 

SOCIAL CONDITIONS. 

The poor laws of the Elizabethan era still bound 
the villagers to their own locality. The cowman, 
wagoner, ploughman, wheelwright, blacksmith, or 
labourer rarely migrated from his native village. 
For many reasons he found it unwise and even 
disastrous to do so. If he sought to improve his 
lot by removing to another district, his new neigh- 
bours regarded him as a characterless and master- 
less man. In poverty or sickness the parochial 



INTEODUCTION. XXi 

authorities could not relieve him, and he had no 
alternative but to tramp with weary feet, and 
pinched face, back to his birthplace. The Law 
of Settlement ruled his destiny, ordaining that he 
should spend his life in his native village, and die 
there, and that the clergyman of the church where 
he was baptised should commit his ashes to their 
long home. In our day, the lot of a 17th century 
labourer would not commend itself to us as an 
ideal career. Day in day out, through the four 
seasons of the year, he toiled from dawn to dark 
and long after on the land and m the steaddings, 
for a weekly dole of five or six shillings. He had 
no thought of dignity or independence, reverencing 
his master as a benefactor. He doffed his hat 
to the squire, the parson, the yeomen, and their 
wives. The ennobling thoughts and holy associa- 
tions of the village church did not awaken any 
echo in his soul. He had been baptised there, and 
married there, he had dropped a tear into the open 
grave of some dear one sleeping in its quiet 
God's acre, but that was all. Illiterate and 
destitute, he loved best the ale-house. There he 
could sit beside a blazing fire and receive a hospit- 
able welcome whenever he had a copper to spend. 
With clothes worn and torn, and foul with the wear 
of a life-time; with limbs shaking with ague, or 
drawn with rheumatism ; and a face that bespoke 
the ravages of small-pox, and gaunt and haggard 
with privation ; he lived his little life, and passed 
into the obscurity of the grave. 

At home he rarely tasted fresh meat, and the 
salted meat occasionally available engendered 
scurvy, by reason of the unwholesomeness of the 
salt. 

The bread his wife laid before him for his 



XXll INTRODUCTION. 

morning and evening meals had been kneaded from 
rye, or pea, or bean meal, oftener than from flour. 

He lived in a hut constructed of timber and mud, 
with, a thatched roof and earthen floor. The small 
windows were often nnlatticed and covered with 
bagging, the ill-fitting door freely admitted the 
cold air and the rain. Of furniture he contented 
himself with a rough wooden bench, a table, and 
a few footstools, with a table service of wooden 
platters and spoons. 

If his hut boasted an upper sleeping chamber, 
he ascended to it by means of a post, with notches 
cut in it to serve for foothold, and stretched himself 
upon a litter of straw to sleep, drawing a rug about 
him to keep off the cold. 

Should he be fortunate enough to own pigs or 
poultry, they made their domicile in the hut with 
his family and himself. 

It is not surprising that under such conditions 
his children grew up in squalor and ignorance, and 
that such epidemics as small-pox and fevers 
ravaged his home. 

From such a picture of savagedom, we turn with 
interest to the yeoman's homestead, with its many 
evidences of comfort and even culture. In it we 
find the floors laid with cement, and carpeted with 
rushes. In the kitchen by the chimney nook, an 
oak settle provided sitting accommodation. The 
children's hornbook hung from a nail beside the 
chimney shelf, and on the window ledge lay a 
Bible, Foxe's Book of Martyrs, or any other volumes 
the family possessed. A large table, surrounded 
with chairs, filled the centre of the room, and in 
the homes of substantial farmers one of those 
massive oak sideboards, so greatly admired and 
coveted to-day, occupied one side of the apartment. 



INTRODUCTION. XXlll 

The house-proud farmer's wife would often relieve 
the bareness of the walls by stretching picture 
cloths over them, illustrative of sacred, or secular 
history. 

The yeoman kept a generous board. His table 
groaned with plenty. At meal times a huge jug 
of Michaelmas ale replenished the horn mugs of 
the family, and the viands comprised butcher's 
m^eat, fresh vegetables, fish from the nearest 
stream, poultry from the farmyard, and sometimes 
a huge pastry made from venison, presented to the 
house-wife by the squire's steward. 

The gentleman ranked immediately above the 
yeoman. He usually enjoyed an income 
amounting to about £200 per annum, and popular 
custom accorded him the prefix " Master " to his 
name. To this class the merchants of the town 
often belonged. Higher still in the social order 
stood the squire, the landlord, and superior of the 
yeoman. From his rank the King raised the 
knightage. The knight lived in great state, and 
A number of fine old halls survive the wasting hand 
of Time, such as Aston and Charlcote. As we gaze 
upon them a mental picture comes to us of the 
generous profusion of the " good old times " when 
men drew their wealth from the land. 

The nobility topped all county society, main- 
taining in their baronial halls the pomp and magni- 
ficence of local potentates. The tourist con- 
templating for the first time the imposing exterior 
of a noble Elizabethan mansion like Compton 
Wynyates, the historic seat of the Earls of 
Northampton, is able to form some idea of the 
right royal state in which the Stuart peers lived. 

The Earl of Huntingdon, from his palace fortress 
at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and the Earl of Stamford, 



XXIV INTRODUCTION. 

from stately Bradgate, ruled Leicestershire. If 
they chose they could preside alternately at the 
Quarter Sessions, and monopolise the Parlia- 
mentary representation in their families. 

At the close of the Wars of the Roses the old 
baronage of England had become almost extinct. 
In the succeeding Tudor and Stuart times, either 
by reason of their wealth, or by the easier pathway 
of Royal favour, scions of the squirearchy and the 
knightage stepped into the high places of the land. 
At the beginning of the 17th century there were in 
England 12,000 gentlemen, 3,000 esquires, 600 
knights, 800 baronets, and 160 temporal lords. 
The recognised standard of income for the squire- 
archy amounted to £450. 

CRIMINAL LAW. 

The criminal law of the ITth century punished 
cases of felony, manslaughter, robbery, rape, and 
murder by hanging the offender. In cases where 
the jury returned a verdict of felo de se the corpse 
was buried at four cross roads and a stake driven 
through it. Perjury was visited with the penalty 
of the pillory and the branding of the letter '' P " 
upon the criminal's forehead. One or both the 
ears of trespassers were cut off, sheep-stealers each 
lost a hand, rogues were burnt through the ears, 
whipped, and placed in the stocks, and harlots and 
scolds strapped in ducking chairs and immersed in 
the nearest water. Offenders convicted of wilful 
murder, done either upon pretended malice or in 
any notable robbery, were hanged alive in chains 
on gibbets near the places where they committed 
their crimes. Witches could be hanged or burnt. 
Ignorance and superstition everywhere prevailed. 
In the dull minds of the rustics the belief prevailed 



INTRODUCTION. XXV 

that witches ruled the elements. The yeoman's 
wife feared that the ancient hag who lived in the 
hut on the fringe of the wood, could by her spells 
turn the cream sour in the churn, or cause the sow 
to bring a litter of dead pigs. She deemed it 
prudent to conciliate the crone by presents of cheese 
and milk and meal. Her dairymaid would steal 
away in the twilight to the same uncanny dame, 
and pay her silver coins for a love philtre to fix 
the wajnvard affection of the wagoner and obtain 
her promise to bewitch her rival. Her heart 
fluttering with fear she would timidly lift the latch 
of the door and furtively glance round the interior 
of the hut, then look anxiously backward into the 
darkening sky, half fearful of seeing the witch 
come soaring homeward on a broomstick after an 
aerial voyage. The dread of witchcraft had 
roofed itself deeply in the imagination of the 
country people, causing the days to pass wearily, 
and the nights uncannily. People hated M'itches, 
but all the same sought their aid in times of 
difficulty. The witch in her turn lived in daily 
dread of exposure. Any person whom she might 
offend or who might conceive an imaginary 
grievance, could go to the nearest magistrate, and 
lay information that she practised Satannic arts. 
Only the haunting dread of her reprisals deterred 
accusers. Fear like a coat of mail protected her. 
Although the courts of justice accepted the most 
absurd statements as evidence against her, and as 
sufficient evidence to consign her to a fiery death 
at the stake, yet there remained always a possi- 
bility that by nefarious means she might obtain 
an acquittal, and nobody then would have envied 
her accuser. In the 17th century the persecution 
of witches became so violent that even King James, 



XXVI INTRODUCTION. 

the terror of the witch tribe, felt a twinge of com- 
punction. On visiting Leicester in 1616 he 
ascertained that nine of these unfortunate hags had 
recently suffered at the hands of the executioner 
for bewitching a boy at Market Husband. His 
Majesty ordered the boy to be brought before him 
and questioned him. He then summoned the 
judges to his presence, scolded them roundly, and 
ordered the high sheriff to liberate a second batch 
lying in Leicester gaol, awaiting trial for a 
similar offence. The rustic mind peopled the 
whole landscape with supernatural beings. Fairies 
danced in circles in the sylvan glades, goblins and 
sprites hidden away in quiet nooks watched for 
opportunities to work mischief, and ghosts walked 
abroad at midnight hour in lonely spots where 
crimes had been perpetrated. The educated 
classes were not exempt from this superstitious 
bondage, for they pinned their credulity to the 
mysticism of the Astrologer. The squire's young 
heir on the eve of his departure from home to 
travel in foreign parts, his soberer father anxious 
for the young man's safety, the wealthy merchant 
contemplating an unusual speculation, and the 
substantial yeoman inquisitive about his crops, 
would dismiss the witch and consult the Astrologer, 
paying him handsome amounts to draw their 
horoscopes. Through the battles of the civil war 
officer and trooper alike often carried in his pocket 
his mystic horoscope. The bearer could not under- 
stand why, but he had a confused idea that in the 
fury of the battlefield, when sword rang against 
sword — in the elation of the chase, or in the mute 
gallop of flight, it would have some propitiative 
effect over destiny. Soldiers of high position 
cherished such a notion, not only in the ranks of 



INTRODUCTICN. XXVll 

the Cavaliers, but also of tlie Parliamentary army. 
It is recorded that on numerous occasions eminent 
astrologers visited the Roundhead headquarters 
and were accorded an enthusiastic welcome. But 
the long reign of ignorance and superstition had 
already reached its cycle. 

THE BIBLE. 

Tyndale's Bible had illumined the mighty brain 
of Shakespeare, and the authorised version of 
James' reign, published in 1611, had opened to 
glorious Milton a realm of wondrous imagery. It 
is not easy in our day to gauge the intellectual and 
spiritual influence of the wide and free circulation 
of a vernacular translation of the Bible upon the 
thought of mediseval and modern Englishmen. As 
the fairy tale fascinates the child mind, and as 
Dickens and Scott appeal to maturer readers, so 
the old world stories of the Hebrew Scriptures 
gripped the imagination and awakened the under- 
standing of the farmer, the mechanic, and the 
tradesman. They read and re-read Bible pages until 
sacred history saturated their minds, and sacred 
phraseology dominated their every-day speech. 
But familiarity engendered cant. It is noticeable 
of Puritanism as a movement, that its adherents of 
the rank and file, held to an unbalanced inter- 
pretation of the teaching of Holy Scripture. They 
searched its passages to find an endorsement of 
their political objects. They sought benediction 
rather than instruction. Such a practice often 
landed them in illogical positions. A clergyman 
summoned before Parliament as a Recusant, 
refused to admit its paramount authority. " I am 
commanded by the sacred word," he asserted, "to 
fear God and honour the King. I find there no 



XXVIU INTRODUCTION. 

mention of Parliament." Those stern men of 
inflexible will whose iinflincliing faith in the 
justice of the revolutionary movement bore them 
on over battlefields drenched with human blood, 
drew their inspiration from the narrow and unin- 
formed thought of Hebrew literature accepted 
literally. When Oliver Cromwell stood on the 
hillside at Dunbar in September, 1650, and watched 
his troopers charge the soldiers of Leslie, he ex- 
claimed rapturously " jS'ow let God arise and let 
his enemies be scattered," yet those flying enemies 
of Cromwell would have recited the self same texts 
as a Te Deum, had they proved victorious. 

The advent of the Bible to the homes of the 
middle classes enlarged their conception of truth, 
but they failed to understand that broad and 
definite principle of charity, that is destined to 
influence men to further the Divine purpose in the 
domestic circle and in the state. They became 
impatient of the old lights of ritual and priest- 
craft, and carried their preference for simplicity 
of worship to the extreme of dulness, yet at the 
mean of these extremes we find the strong and noble 
element of puritanism. In the manses scattered 
over the land many learned and cultured divines 
watched the developments of the movement with 
pain. They would have gladly given their aid 
to reform the Government of England, but they 
could not bless the irreverent hands put foii;h to 
destroy it. 

PUBLIC LECTURERS. 

The growth of the religious renaissance of the 
close of the 16th century led to the appointment 
of Public Lecturers in the large provincial towns. 
Some of the most cultured and most stalwart 



INTRODrCTIOX. XXIX 

ministers of tJie period lield these appointments. 
Leicester enjoyed the ministrations of Mr. John 
Angel, a scholar, a fervent Puritan, and a whole- 
hearted Christian. The appointment was made 
by the Town Council subject to the King's approval. 
Mr. Angel's instructions required him to preach 
daily in both St. Martin's Church and the chapel 
of the Newark Hospital, and to deliver lectures 
from time to time on religious and social subjects. 

JOHN ANGEL. 

His intelligence and culture, combined with his 
unwearying zeal, won for him a warm place in the 
hearts of Leicester people, and rendered an 
immense service to the Puritan cause. Of all 
the brave public men of bygone Leicester few have 
left behind an influence so sweet and pure as 
he. jSTo sculptured monument or graven memorial 
stone proclaims his virtues to our generation and 
points the moral of a noble life, but the student 
who loves the seclusion of the ancient Elizabethan 
Guildhall lingers there, to finger the yellow pages 
of the folios that John Angel collected and housed 
upon the shelves, and think great thoughts. They 
are the actual books John Angel used to read. His 
loving care catalogued them. In 1632, the year 
Mr. Hildersham died at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, after 
long and continuous consultations with the 
Council, he obtained permission to transfer 
them to the Guildhall. He spent many toilsome 
days superintending their removal ; he instructed 
the carpenters about the shelves, and ranged the 
volumes in their proper places. xVt length, with 
a thrill of joy, he caused the doors to be flung open 
and welcomed the public to enjoy his treasures. 
Puritan divines, book-loving burgesses, and 
studious youths gathered in the quaint old rooms. 



XXX INTRODUCTION. 

Sturdy citizens, who thirteen years later would 
spill their blood for conscience sake at Rupert's 
breach in Leicester wall, sat on the benches, 
adjusted their horn-rimmed barnacles, and settled 
down to read these very books, now musty with 
age. The town authorities have preserved them 
more or less carefully, and after two hundred and 
seventy years they remain, a fitting and a noble 
memorial of John Angel. 

THE ANCIENT GUILDHALL. 

We linger in the chief apartment of the ancient 
Guildhall. It is the Council Chamber. Standing 
under its gables and rafters and glancing at its 
unsymmetrical proportions, the visitor's first im- 
pulse is to remove his hat in reverence to the past. 

In the tiny loft opposite the Mayoral bench 
Queen Elizabeth once sat, surrounded by her 
maidens, watching a company of players. From 
the Mayoral seat canny King James scolded his 
judges, and his son King Charles I. pleaded with 
the stubborn burgesses on the eve of the civil war. 
Many illustrious men have gathered in this room. 
Henry fifth Earl of Huntingdon, infirm and 
recluse, and Henry Earl of Stamford, sinister and 
mercenary, have met with chilly greeting to tran- 
sact county business. Imagination embodies 
them out of thin air, and others of their con- 
temporaries. Henry Hastings, Lord Lough- 
borough as he afterwards became, brought the 
Commission of Array here, handing it to the Town 
Clerk to translate, and transacted business with the 
Council during the brief fortnight he held the 
Governorship of Leicester for the King. Oliver 
Cromwell and Sir Thomas Fairfax came after their 
victory at Naseby in thick riding boots and 



INTRODUCTION. XXXI 

clanking spurs, to be congratulated on the re- 
capture of the town, Sir John Gell, course and 
vicious. Colonel Hutchinson, reluctant regicide. 
Lord Grey of Grobj, visionary and lovable. Sir 
John Hartopp, devotee of the wine cup, and Colonel 
Bagot, the brave defender of Lichfield, have all 
visited this old Council Chamber, intent upon the 
business of the civil war. But the tongues once 
eloquent to plead, or potent to command, have 
mouldered into dust. 

" These our actors, as I foretold you, are all 
spirits and are melted into thin air." 

And the old rafters, black and worm-eaten, and 
the thick walls, growing decrepit with age, alone 
are left. 



THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 

CHAPTER I. 

A.D. 1460-1485. 

OUR first acquaintance with the Castle intro- 
duces to our notice a great personage of 
the declining mediaeval age, a man who largely held 
the fortunes of England in his mailed hand. 

We recall the dark and barbarous epoch of the 
Wars of the Roses, when the candle of the ancient 
chivalry had almost flickered out, and the bloody 
dynastic quarrel of the rival houses of Lancaster 
and York convulsed the realm of England. The 
story of the first baron dates backward to the root 
period of that horrible dispute, reanimating such 
old world characters as saintly Henry, vindictive 
Margaret, heroic young Edward of Lancaster, and 
the ambitious Duke of York. 

KIUBY MUXLOE. 

A curious interest centres in the ruins of the 
ancient brick castle of Kirby Muxloe, more real 
than the unsupported tradition that Jane Shore 
once languished therein, a prisoner of love, and 
pining for the society of London. The time-worn 
walls still invite the passing interest of the traveller, 
chiefly because their substance is of unusual bricks. 

2 



Z ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

Ill the rude days of tlie early 15tli century a 
fortress stood upon their site, that passed by 
inheritance to a retainer and knight of the House 
of York, Sir Leonard Hastings, and in which he 
established his home. Little is known of Sir 
Leonard but this, that nature endowed him with 
an aspiring ambition. He boasted a lineal 
descent from William Hastings, a steward of 
Henry II., and through him from Norman pro- 
genitors. By dint of hard blows and unflinching 
fidelity to his Lord, Leonard Hastings won his 
knighthood, but rose no higher m the social scale. 
Fate had not ordained that he should make a great 
name, but it had decreed that he should found an 
illustrious family. The shrewd knight, however, 
did for his coming heirs the greatest service open 
to human judgment, by giving them a noble 
ancestress. In the sunny south at Lord Camoy's 
castle in Sussex, he wooed and won his bride, the 
gentle Alice, the daughter of the Castle. There 
is to-day in Trotton Church a monumental brass, 
that brings us in touch with the grandfather of 
the Lady Alice ; the inscription reads : — 

"Pray for the souls of Thomas Camoys and 
Elizabeth his consort, who formerly was Lord 
of Camoys, baron and prudent counsellor of 
the King and Kingdom of England, and a valiant 
Knight of the Garter. He commended his soul 
to Christ the 28th day of the month of March, 
A.D., 1419. On whose souls may God have 
mercy. Amen." 

WILLIAM HASTINGS. 

At Kirby Muxloe Castle the Lady Alice gave 
birth in 1430 to a son, whom they christened 
William, and who was destined to build Ashby 



THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 3 

Castle, and found the Huntingdon family. No 
information is preserved of the childhood and boy- 
hood of young Hastings. Frequently his father 
quitted the castle with his men-at-arms to render 
feudal service to his lord ; leaving the boy to his 
mother's sole care. In her delightful companion- 
ship he learnt those courtly manners for which he 
became distinguished in after days. It would be 
the office of Sir Leonard's forester and keeper of 
the hawks to train the boy in manly field sports, 
and the grooms would see to it that his skill in 
horsemanship would be sufficiently expert to win 
a nod of approval from the war-like knight. When 
young Hastings had attained his sixteenth year 
Sir Leonard bade him kiss the Lady Alice and 
accompany him on his long ride to Fotheringay, 
w^here he presented him to his patron the Duke of 
York. Hichard received the youth into his house- 
hold as a page, in which capacity he soon attracted 
attention, and received an appointment to be one 
of his lord's body squires. After several years of 
indomitable service the young squire obtained the 
coveted distinction of knighthood. The Duke 
himself bestowed the accolade with it, granting 
him a conditional annuity. 

THE HASTINGS VOW. 

The condition bound Hastings on solemn oath 
to serve his lord, before all others, and at all times, 
his allegiance to the King only excepted. In the 
unsettled and brutal years of the early fifteenth 
century, men regarded fidelity as the supreme 
virtue, a basal principle of feudalism. It be- 
hoved the ambitious and Royal Duke, in view of 
the rough pathway that lay before him, to bind 
his young retainer (with his chivalrous instincts 



4 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

and his courtly manners) fast to liis personal 
interest. In doing this he served the future of his- 
dynasty. History unfolds the noble record of 
young Hastings' faithfulness to him personally, 
and to his heirs; in council chambers, on 
battlefields, and at the fatal block on Tower Green. 
He gave his master a consistent love and reverence, 
that gold could not purchase. In the light of a 
bond so lasting between feudal lord and retainer 
it is easy to understand Hastings' horror, when he 
heard of young Rutland's death and how vin- 
dictive Margaret had ordered the Duke's decapi- 
tated head to be crowned with a paper diadem and 
fixed upon a pike to a gateway of York. 

The deed of unwonted barbarity awakened a 
desire for vengeance in the heart of every soldier 
of the White Hose. Duke Edward grasped the 
sword of his fallen father, and with the assistance 
of the King Maker, the Duke of Buckingham, 
Lords Howard and Stanley, and Sir William 
Hastings, infused his own determinate will into 
the minds of all his followers. He met the Lan- 
castrian forces on the field of Towton. The battle 
raged six hours, in a blinding snowstorm. Sixty 
thousand men are said to have been engaged on 
each side, and the slaughter to have been incredible. 

TOWTON. 

The Yorkest herald afterwards declared he counted 
2,000 Lancastrian dead. Each side fought with 
desperate bravery, and Edward's losses must have 
equalled those of Margaret. 

When the fortunes of war appeared to be setting 
against the Yorkists, the King-maker dismounted, 
and with his own hand slew his famous destrier, 
declaring he would either win the victory or die 



THE BFILDER OF THE CASTLE. 5 

upon the field. The personality of the renowned 
leader and his theatrical deed re-animated the 
Yorkists. Knights and squires gripped their 
swords anew, yeomen rebent their bows, the ranks 
closed in, and Edward won the battle. 

A FILIAL DUTY. 

The following day, his mind intent upon the 
fulfilment of a filial duty long deferred, the 
Conqueror led his army to York. Lifting his 
tearful eyes to the summit of the groined archway, 
he commanded his knights to remove with reverent 
hands the mutilated remains, and give them holy 
burial. 

Eight years of unrest and intrigue for England 
followed the victory of Towton, but years of fortune 
building for Sir William Hastings. 

King Edward, with all his faults, knew how to 
estimate the value of the service his father's knight 
had rendered to him. He had climbed with mailed 
feet and bloody sword the steps of the throne of 
England, seating himself in Henry's place; and 
from its high altitude he reached down a gracious 
hand to lift Sir William Hastings to a foremost 
place in the peerage. With the barony he 
bestowed offices and wealth. 

In 1461, the year of his accession, he conferred 
upon him the receivership of the Duchy of Corn- 
wall, appointed him to the Mastership of the Mint, 
exalted him to be Grand Chamberlain of England 
(a position he retained until the day of his death), 
and Chamberlain of Wales. 

We cannot wonder at the weight of honours the 
sovereign conferred upon his beloved servant, as 
he was wont to describe him. Fuller tells us, 
" the reader needeth not my dim candle to direct 



b ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

him, to this illustrious person whom Edward TV, 
(or rather Edward Plantaganet, because more in 
human than in royal capacity) so delighted in, that 
he made him his Lord Chamberlain, and Baron 
Hastings of Ashby-de-la-Zouch." 

But clouds began to lower over the gaiety and 
profligacy of Edward's court. The Woodville 
marriage, followed by an unreasonable elevation 
of the Queen's relatives, alienated numbers of his 
subjects, and inclined others to the Lancastrian 
interest. The haughty King-maker retired in 
sullen anger to Middleham. Without openly 
revolting from Edward's cause he held aloof during 
the rebellion of Robin Redesdale, allowing that 
leader to defeat the royal forces at ISTorthampton 
and execute the Queen's father and brother, Earl 
Rivers and Sir John Woodville. Contemporary 
writers describe him as a consummate intriguer, an 
able commander, but wanting in personal bravery. 
His towering ambition moved him to aspire to be 
the ancestor of a dynasty. In furtherance of that 
end he accomplished the marriage of Clarence to 
his daughter Isabel in defiance of the King's veto. 
The defeat at Northampton left Edward without a 
following, led to his capture by Clarence and 
Warwick, and his committal to the custody of the 
Archbishop of York, who entertained him with 

MIDDLEHAM CASTLE. 

splendid hospitality at Middleham. The records 
of this period are uncertain and conflicting, but 
it appears that while the King alternately fumed 
and played the gallant, Gloucester and Hastings 
worked upon the fears of the Archbishop, stirred 
up the army to demand his release, and procured 
his liberation. 



THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 7 

During tlie King's imprisonment disaffection 
increased. Everywhere the memory of the deposed 
dynasty revived. People contrasted the saintly 
character of Henry, the pathetic prisoner of the 
Tower, with Edward's voluptuous licentiousness, 
and the high-born Margaret with his commoner 
Queen. 

The position of affairs all over the country 
became sufficiently perilous to awaken him; he 
saw the crown slipping from his brow, and dis- 
content and rebellion undermining the foundations 
of his throne. Gloucester and Hastings, his 
loyalist lieutenants, urged him to activity. Besides, 
his imprisonment had roused his lion spirit, and 
the ablest military commander in England set 
himself the task of reconquering his Kingdom. By 
a series of rapid marches he scoured the counties, 
everywhere defeating his enemies, and inflicting 
vindictive vengeance until for a brief period he re- 
gained something of his old ascendency, then 
practically disbanded his army, and relapsed into 
his sensuous pleasures. 

But he had only scotched the snake, not slain 
it. Warwick, with Clarence driven from the 
country by his recent campaign, fled to France, 
where a great amity existed between Louis XI. and 
the King-maker. 

At the French King's Court Warwick met 
Margaret, and by the mediation of the King, 
became reconciled to her, at the same time 
negotiating a marriage between his youngest 
daughter, Gloucester's sweetheart, and the young 
Prince Edward of Wales, thus lifting a second 
daughter upon the steps of the English throne. 

It was the darkest hour of King Edward's 
fortunes, yet he knew it not. Courtiers who had 



8 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

basked in the sunshine of his court; nobles who 
had shared his wanton amusements; and states- 
men who had taken part in the deliberations of 
his Council Chamber, intrigued with his enemies. 
Gloucester, Hastings, Dorset, and others noted 
what was passing, but Edward would not heed 
them. He had experienced the consummation of 
his rough and ambitious father's wildest dreams; 
he had grown accustomed to think of Henry as a 
prisoner in the Tower, and of Margaret and Prince 
Edward as exiles. It remained for the Grand 
Chamberlain, his beloved servant, to tell him the 
stern truth, and tender to him advice repugnant to 
a warrior King who had won his crown by 
conquest. 

In France the spirit of invasion filled the minds 
of Margaret and her exiled followers, while the 
wary King-maker laid his plans and prepared his 
armaments. The intelligence of his successful 
debarkment at Portsmouth on September 17th, 
1470, aroused Edward from his unholy indolence. 
Whilst the King-maker advanced northwards 
through London everywhere proclaiming King 
Henry towards Nottingham, he moved from 
Doncaster to meet him. On the banks of the 
Welland he found himself surrounded by foes. 
The King-maker had approached within a day's 
march, and Lord Montacute, his brother, had 
hurried from York with 6,000 men wearing red 
roses in their caps, and shouting *' God save King 
Henry." His great lords sent a minstrel into 
Edward's tent to awaken him, and warn him of 
his danger. Sitting up in bed he called for his 
nobles and commanded them to set his troops in 

HASTINGS' ADVICE. 

battle array. Then it was while the lords looked 



THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 9 

askance at eacli other, that the Grand Chamberlain 
told him the truth, how not a single regiment of 
his army could be relied upon, and that to insure 
his personal safety he must on the instant flee to 
the court of his brother-in-law, the Duke of 
Burgundy. The King assented, and accompanied 
by the Duke of Gloucester, Earl Rivers, Lord 
Hastings and six other nobles, and escorted by a 
select company of faithful soldiers, rode over the 
bridge where he had set a guard to arrest 
Warwick's advance, and made his way at full 
gallop to King's Lynn. Hastings accompanied 
his sovereign in the first vessel available to 
Holland. Their flight had been so precipitate that 
on boarding they discovered that they possessed no 
money or valuables. The captain, however, 
received them kindly, accepting in payment for 
their passage the King's fur-lined cloak and 
promises of future reward. On quitting his army 
Edward advised his soldiers to join Warwick until 
his return, a recommendation that expressed the 
treacherous character of baronnial warfare. Land- 
ing in Holland at the end of September, the exiles 
made their way to the Duke of Burgundy's capital, 
and flung themselves upon his unwilling hos- 
pitality. While Warwick ruled in England in 
King Henry's name, coaxing Clarence's fickle 
alliance with unsubstantial titles, and seeking to 
win the confidence of suspicious Margaret, Edward 
waited impatiently his opportunity through the 
winter months, his queen a prisoner in the 
sanctuary at Westminster, in that lone condition 
when a wife most needs her husband's sympathy. 
In February he could no longer restrain his im- 
patience, and resolved to put his fortunes to the 
hazard. " Upon the morn Wednesday and Thurs- 



10 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

day, the 13tli day of Marcli, fell great storms, winds 
and tempests upon the sea ; so that on the 13th day 
in great torment he came to Humberhede, where 
the other ships were dissevered from him. The 
King, with his ship alone, wherein was the Lord 
Hastings, his Chamberlain, and others to the 
number of 500 well-chosen men, landed within 
Humber, on the Holderness side, at a place called 
Ravenspoure. The King's brother Eichard, Duke 
of Gloucester, and in his company 200 men, landed 
at another place three miles from thence." 

Advancing southward Hastings left the King to 
raise the Yorkish banner amongst his own tenantry 
in Leicestershire. 

In response to his call men of all social ranks 
gathered around him, some volunteering out of love 
of adventure, but chiefly those who owed him feudal 
service. 

Burgesses from Leicester provided with pikes 
of home manufacture, knights and esquires from 
halls and granges armed cap a pie, his own re- 
tainers, trained men of war, and yeomen from the 
farms with long bows, answered his summons. The 
task of equipping such a force set the forges in the 
villages all aglow, and awakened the music of 
armourer's hammers ; while foraging parties 
scoured the county. The Lord Chamberlain's com- 
mand stirred Leicestershire to an unwonted 
activity, and speedily he found himself in a posi- 
tion to join his master with a force of 3,000 men. 

BARNET. 

On Easter Sunday, April 14th, 1470, the famed 
King-maker met his fate at Barnet. His ambitious 
course of scheming and treachery had reached its 
period. He might have secured his personal safety 



THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 11 

by responding to Edward's advances, as his weak 
son-in-law Clarence did, but sncb a step would 
have left him without a rag of honour to clothe his 
nakedness, and exposed his wife and child to 
Margaret's vengeance. Besides, he had no hope 
he could regain Edward's hearty confidence, he 
had made the breach too wide. So in the damp 
fog he prepared to engage in his last battle. Each 
side fought not merely for supremacy, but for 
existence. The combat may be fittingly described 
as the Battle of Blunders. 

King Edward rode from London to Bamet the 
previous evening in the fog, to find on his arrival, 
Warwick's army well-arranged in battle array. 
Friar Bungay, the astrologer of Jacquetta, the 
Queen's mother, was credited at the time with 
having caused the fog by magic arts. The atmos- 
phere on the eve of the battle was so dense that the 
Yorkists found themselves unable to effect a skilful 
deposition of their forces, because they could not 
reconnoitre the Lancastrian position. By a 
strange blunder they massed their men, so as to 
cover the King-maker's centre with their right 
wing, leaving their left wing stretched beyond the 
battlefield. Had the day dawned clear such a 
mistake would have caused the annihilation of 
Edward's army. But at four o'clock in the morning 
when the battle commenced the fog had not lifted. 
The left wing of each army, advancing in the fog, 
found no resistance, and in consequence moved for 
their centre. By this manoeuvre Warwick's left 
wing overpowered Edward's right, dispersing it, 
and pursuing the fugitives along the London Eoad. 
Meanwhile, the King-maker, suspecting the fidelity 
of his brother Montacute, persuaded him to dis- 
mount and fight on foot beside himself. The Yorkist 



12 ROMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

left, encountering no opposition, also moved to- 
wards its centre, so strengthening the pressure 
round the King-maker. Edward and his soldiers, 
wearing a device of the sun with rays, pressed like 
an overwhelming avalanche upon Warwick. 
Everywhere in the dim morning twilight the eyes 
of the sorely-beset Lancastrians encountered suns 
and rays. Unfortunately for them, the Earl of 
Oxford (who had succeeded in dispersing and pur- 
suing the Yorkist right) at this juncture returned 
to re-inforce Warwick, but his men carried badges 
of stars and rays. The Lancastrians, mistaking 
them for Yorkists, attacked them fiercely, giving 
King Edward an opportunity he was too expect a 
general to neglect, of delivering a final assault that 
completely scattered them. 

The King-maker, perceiving the hopelessness of 
his rout, turned with his brother and a few faith- 
ful followers, and fled for the shelter of a neigh- 
bouring plantation ; but his armour both checked 
his pace, and by its familiarit}'- attracted the pur- 
suit of the Yorkist men-at-arms ; who speedily 
overtook and despatched him. With his back to 
the foe the great King-maker, the last of the barons, 
died. Four hours of fighting had destroyed his 
power. 

At ten o'clock that Easter morning, whilst over 
the fields of England and in the towns the merry 
bells chimed out their invitation to the house of 
prayer, a group of illustrious personages gathered 
round the cor])se of the head of the house of Neville, 
who had filled England and the Continent with his 
commanding influence. 

His son-in-law Clarence, his cousin King 
Edward, his relative by marriage the Lord Cham- 
berlain (who had commanded a division in the 



THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 13 

battle), and tlie Duke of Gloucester (his cousin, 
who aspired to a nearer relationship), gathered 
around his body lying like carrion on the ground. 
They had shared with him the dangers of former 
battlefields, his duplicity had roused their indig- 
nation, and no man shed a tear. 

But Gloucester (a youth of eighteen) remembered 
past days, when as a boy he had shared the affluent 
hospitality of lordly Middleham, and played with 
Anne Neville, the sweetheart whom the dead man 
had affianced to a rival prince ; but whom he 
would some day make his wife, the mother of his 
children, and seat upon the throne of England. 

Margaret's landing. 

In the same fog that caused confusion on the 
battlefield of Barnet, Queen Margaret landed on 
the southern coast. But the light of hope dimmed 
in her eyes and her proud head drooped in despair 
when she heard the news of Warwick's fate. Long 
years of privation, of desertion, and of defeat had 
tamed the spirit of the lioness. She had sailed to 
England buoyed up by the thought, that the King- 
maker s marvellous influence would liberate her 
pious husband from the Tower and re-seat him on 
the throne. xVt Cerne Abbey she heard of his death 
and sank into a deadly swoon. Sir John Fortescue, 
her faithful counsellor, with her son Prince 
Edward and his youthful affianced bride, had 
accompanied her from France. The new widowed 
Countess of Warwick, who also had crossed the 
Channel with the Queen, landed at Portsmouth, 
and hearing of her loss, in mute despair sought 
refuge in the Beaulieu Sanctuary. On recovering 
consciousness the Queen bewailed her misfortunes, 
declaring she would rather die than live; but 



14 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCII CASTLE. 

her son comforted her, and persuaded her to go to 
Beaulieu, where she met the Countess. The news 
of her arrival at Beaulieu reached the ears of the 
Lancastrian lords. The Duke of Somerset, Lords 
Devonshire, Oxford, Wenlock, and many knights 
and gentlemen hurried to her, bidding her hope 
for better fortune. They informed her that 
fugitives from Barnet, and volunteers from the 
southern counties were daily joining her standard, 
that the Earl of Pembroke had raised an army in 
Wales, and if her Majesty and the Prince would 
lead them into the Principality they pleaded, her 
combined army would be sufficient to resist 
any force that Edward could bring against it. 
Margaret expressed her willingness to accompany 
them, on condition they first despatched the Prince 
to France. Her maternal heart shrunk from the 
thought of exposing her noble boy to the dangers 
of the battlefield. To such an exception, however, 
the Prince himself would not agree. His chival- 
rous spirit could not brook the thought of others 
fighting for his father's liberty and crown, while 
he remained a craven in easeful security abroad. 
Where the Queen and her army marched he would 
accompany them. His protests bore down Mar- 
garet's opposition and wrung from her a reluctant 
consent. " Well be it so," she said, and to her 
dying day she cursed the hour she spoke the words. 
She appointed the Duke of Somerset commander 
of her forces. That nobleman proposed an ex- 
pedition into Wales, to effect a junction with Lord 
Pembroke, and proceed to Chester. But the Yorkist 
King, by one of his accustomed rapid movements, 
blocked their way. On April 19th he left London, 
on May 3rd he reached Tewkesbury at earlv morn 
and encamped his army. When the Lancastrians 



THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 15 

arrived at Gloucester, they found to their con- 
sternation that the citizens had fortified the bridge, 
and refused them a passage over the river. The 
alternative was a forced march to Tewkesbury, 
over rough and dirty roads, with an insufficient 
commissariat. The army was dispirited by reason 
of the privations it had already encountered, and 
Margaret, shrewder than her general, would have 
postponed the journey, but Somerset insisted. The 
army reached Tewkesbury in a bedraggled con- 
dition, the soldiers weary, hungry, and dispirited, 
to find the Yorkist King's army comfortably 
bivouaced, well fed, and rested, and drawn up in 
battle array upon the low lands beside the river. 
At the sight of her rival's well-ordered appoint- 
ments Margaret and her experienced officers again 
desired to retire, but Somerset refused. He drew 
his forces up in the park, declaring he w^ould take 
upon the morrow such fortunes as Grod should grant 
him. The battle that ensued destroyed for 

TEWKESBURY. 

ever the weary Queen's hopes. The fight at 
Barnet had been a knightly duel, the conflict at 
Tewkesbury proved a disastrous rout. When the 
Queen watched her regiments fly before the vic- 
torious Yorkists she endeavoured to rush to them, 
that she might implore them to renew their efforts, 
but her attendants hurried her with her daughter- 
in-law away from the scene of carnage to a neigh- 
bouring monastery. King Edward, in his early 
years so chivalrous and merciful, had steeled his 
heart when he entered upon his final campaign, 
and on the field of Tewkesbury allowed his soldiery 
a license that resulted in a carnage that has left 
a stain upon his memory. Thousands of Lan- 



16 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

castriaus were murdered on the field in cold blood. 
Even the rights of sanctuary honoured by belli- 
gerents for centuries were ignored. Edward and 
his Queen had each in past days availed themselves 
of the safety it afforded. But when the Duke of 
Somerset, the prior of St. John, and a body of 
knights sought refuge in the grand old church, he 
pursued them sword in hand. A brave priest 
(holding the sacred elements in his hand) inter- 
posed, nor would he allow him to pass until the 
King had vowed to respect the solemnity of God's 
house. He promised, yet a day or tAvo later ordered 
the refugees to be dragged from the church, and 
put to death. But the pathos of that bloody battle 
day at Tewkesbury centres in the person of the 
gallant Prince Edward. The version of the incident 
long accepted by historians tells us that at the 
head of a division he fought amongst the bravest, 
even after all was lost. Sir Richard Crofts led him 
a captive into Edward's tent. The King demanded 
of him, " How dare you enter my realm with 
banners displayed." 

The Prince stood before his ancestral foe alone, 
unsupported by a solitary friend, but undaunted ; 
and looking calmly into his eyes replied, " To 
recover my father's kingdom, and heritage from 
his grandfather and father to him, and from him 
to me lineally descended." 

The King turned his head aside, with his hand 
pushing the knightly youth from him, and then, 
as by an involuntary impulse, struck the captive 
with his iron gauntlet. History in its long annals 
records no deed more unchivalrous ; it appealed 
to passions already pulsating with the fever throb 
of war ; it recalled the memory of the boy Earl of 
Rutland kneeling upon the field of Wakefield to 



THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 17 

fiendish. Clifford, begging for life, and receiving 
in reply a stab of bis dagger ; it reminded tbem of 
that other scene at Wakefield when the Lancas- 
trians seated the captnred Duke of York upon an 
ant hill and mocked him, crying, " Hail, King 
without a kingdom," " Hail, Prince without a 
people," and then beheaded him; the bitterness 
of ancient and cherished vows of vengeance filled 
the hearts of the knights and squires grouped 
arovmd the King, at the opportunity to bring home 
to Margaret in the person of her beloved son her 
vindictive cruelty at Wakefield. No man inter- 
posed ; no man uttered a generous word of mercy ; 
but several knights, unsheathing their daggers (foi 
the hideous work was too close for swords), stepped 
towards the Prince and plunged them into his 
heart. No reliable authority records their names ; 
it was well for the Lord Chamberlain in bis deatb 
hour and at the day of judgment, if he could say 
kis hands were clean of the defenceless victim's 
blood. It was a foul price to pay for a royal crown ; 
even though it purchased for the Yorkist King 
immunity from opposition for all his future life. 
For full four hundred years gentle hearts have 
shed tears of pity for the Eoyal Martyr. But his 
death gave England peace, quenching with his 
blood the smouldering flames of war. 

BUILDING THE CASTLE. 

And now Lord Hastings having in modem par- 
lance made his fortune, addressed himself to the 
task of building a house in keeping with his 
greatness, worthy to serve as a home for his suc- 
ceeding heirs. He had won the hand of the young 
and wealthy widow of Lord Bonville in marriage, 
the daughter of Eichard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, 
3 



18 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

and obtained tlirougli the Neville interest the 
castle and manor of Belvoir. King Edward had 
already conferred upon him the manor of Ashby- 
de-la-Zonch and the Stewardship of Leicester 
Castle, making him lord of a wide area round his 
birthplace. 

Men everywhere cling to the neighbourhood of 
their nativity; and in consonance with this in- 
stinct invariable in human life, Lord Hastings 
selected a site at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Living as 
he did in the period of declining feudalism, when 
authority centred in the person of the King, and 
the last of the barons who had dared to oppose the 
royal will had perished on Barnet field, he deemed 
it no longer necessary or wise to attempt the con- 
struction of a stronghold of Norman architecture. 
Indeed, had he cherished such an idea the King 
would have forbidden its accomplishment. He 
therefore submitted to Edward the plan of a modern 
fifteenth century mansion, of graceful proportions, 
but massive strength, in which he retained that 
essential and supreme refuge of a defence a 
Norman keep, alike the architectural glory and 
the protection of the building. The architect's 
design included state rooms, banqueting hall, 
sleeping apartments, garrison quarters, armoury, 
buttery, kitchens, and stables, built into substantial 
walls, ornamented with battlements, and flanked 
with towers and turrets. The parapets were con- 
trived to enable a beleaguered household to pour 
boiling water and molten lead upon the heads of 
assailants. The shrewd baron retained the essential 
principles of feudal defence, disguised by the orna- 
mental display of the later palatial style. The 
spacious dimensions of the kitchens manifest his 
design to maintain a princely household. The task 



THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 19 

of providing the materials of the fabric must have 
taxed his ingenuity and resources. He demolished 
the late residence of the attainted Earl of Ormond 
that had passed into his possession, and drew 
supplies from the quarries at Bardon Hill. The 
royal license empowered him not only to erect the 
Castle, but to empark 3,000 acres of land at Ashby, 
2,000 at Bagworth, and 2,000 at Kirby Muxloe, 
thereby extending the boundaries of his estate to 
the walls of Leicester. The preliminary royal 
sanction obtained, Lord Hastings set the gigantic 
building operations in motion, bringing an army of 
artificers in wood and stone and iron to Ashby. 
While the walls rose slowly to the music of the 
trowel, he occupied himself v-ith the stupendous 
and costly preparation for furnishing. The Grand 
Chamberlain's new palace became a topic of con- 
versation at Court, as well as in continental palaces, 
and interested the King himself. His agents 
wandered from city to city on the continent. From 
the looms of Flanders, the factories of France, the 
studios of Italy, and the armouries of Spain, they 
collected carpets, tapestries, glass, plate, statuary, 
arms, and armour; the stately oaks of Leicester- 
shire, Derbyshire, ^Nottinghamshire, and Yorkshire 
fell before his woodmen's axes ; and convoys of 
wagons carted the timber to Ashby, where skilled 
artisans planed and turned it into furniture ; 
artists arrived from London to carve and gild on 
walls and chattels ; and enormous quantities of 
lead from the Derbyshire mines, brought on mules 
and pack horses, supplied material for roofs and 
windows. Presents, too, came from many sources. 
Comines asserts that on the occasion of Lord 
Hastings' ambassadorial mission to the Court of 
France, the French King presented him with a 



20 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

service of plate valued at 10,000 marks. It con- 
sisted of twelve dozen articles of gilt silver, and 
twelve dozen of ungilt silver. The baron's acknow- 
ledgment of th.e gift was preserved in the Paris 
archives until the Revolution. 

Step by step the work of building and furnishing 
advanced to completion, until the palace stood 
proudly in the sunshine surrounded by its flowery 
pleasaunce and grassy park, then the steward 
hoisted the Hastings' flag upon the keep, and the 
Grand Chamberlain, richly clad and heralded by a 
fanfare, led his high-born lady through the gate- 
way and a lane of obsequious servitors to her 
apartments, installing her as the first mistress of 
the Castle, and ancestress of a long line of illus- 
trious lords. 

A king's FRIEND. 

But Lord Hastings was destined to enjoy only at 
intermittent periods the splendours of his palace 
home. The duties of his high ofiices of State, and 
even more the claims of the strong friendship that 
existed between the King and himself fixed his 
residence in London. On account of his well-tested 
fidelity and of the saner views of life he held 
Edward leaned on his counsel, and could not spare 
him from his Court. 

Comines knew him personally ; had met him in 
affairs of State ; and has left on record his estimate 
of him. He describes him as " a person of singular 
wisdom and virtue; in great authority with his 
master." 

In Edward's reign corruption and avarice swayed 
the conduct of diplomacy. The King venial the 
great nobles pensioners of a foreign court, public 
men found it difficult to maintain their personal 



THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 21 

honour untarnislied. The Grand Chamberlain, like 
his royal master, gave a willing ear, though a 
reluctant consent, to the French King's advances, 
but on receiving his bribe manifested a sense of 
shame at the indignity of his conduct. Coleret, the 
paymaster of Louis, on handing him one day his 
pension, ventured timidly to suggest that a receipt 
would be acceptable, but Hastings declined. 

"Sir," he replied, "this present is from the 
liberal pleasure of the King your master, not from 
my request, if it be his determinate will that I 
should have it, put it into my sleeve, if not return 
it, for neither he nor you shall have it to brag that 
the Lord Chamberlain of England has been his 
pensioner." 

In such an atmosphere of dishonour the un- 
disciplined ambition of the Woodvilles found scope, 
and sought to remove all who dared to oppose its 
supremacy. It immured the Duke of Clarence in 
the Tower and compassed his violent death. Lord 
Hastings shared for a season his captivity, but the 
arts of Jacquetta failed to induce Edward to listen 
to any designs against the safety of his Chamber- 
lain, whose liberation he commanded. His im- 
prisonment, however, served to widen the breach 
that already existed between the Queen's family 
and himself. 

THE king's DEATH. 

In April, 148^3, the King sickened. He had be- 
come at the age of 41 an old and broken man. A 
life of debauchery had run its course, and had 
reduced the once brave and chivalrous warrior to 
a human wreckage. His bloated face, his un- 
healthy corpulence, foreboded the near approach 
of death, the muffled footfall of which quickened 



22 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

into action his noblest instincts. On that Golgotha, 
to which his wayward course had led him, he 
expressed an earnest solicitude for the future 
welfare of his wife and children. He did not 
under-estimate the bitter animosity the Queen and 
her relatives had provoked ; he could not ; for he 
himself had used their unscrupulous ambition as a 
weapon to break the feudal power of his barons. 
But Elizabeth Woodville had outstepped all 
reasonable bounds ; had promoted the murder of 
Clarence ; the humiliation of Gloucester ; the im- 
prisonment of Hastings ; and had brought her 
fortunes to this pass, that in the acute stage of her 
bereavement she was likely, nay, certain, to find 
the two most powerful men in the realm her 
enemies. 

Edward had never received cause to doubt his 
brother's love ; on the battlefield and in exile he 
had proved his fidelity; when Clarence rebelled 
against him Gloucester clung to him ; and in his 
extremity he called him to his bedside and com- 
mended his children to his care. 

There remained that other leal friend of long- 
standing, the beloved servant Hastings. He made 
him promise fidelity to Elizabeth and her children 
and take the hands of Eivers and Dorset in amity, 
then bade him, as he believed, a long farewell. In 
the softening environment of death the monarch 
failed to realise that in deed and in truth there 
could be no mutual reconciliation between Eliza- 
beth and Hastings ; that their thought and purpose 
could advance along no common pathway. 

To the interest of the young princes the Lord 
Chamberlain readily pledged himself ; for fidelity 
to them came as he deemed within the compass of 
his knightly vow to Richard Duke of York. 



THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 23 

GLOITCESTER AND HASTINGS. 

Between the Diike of Gloucester and tlie Lord 
Chamberlain a friendship existed that had ripened 
from a long acquaintance. For a dozen years and 
more a close companionship had inspired a mutual 
respect and regard. They had shared the King's 
exile, and fought side by side at Barnet and at 
Tewkesbury. On the tented battlefield, at the 
evening carousal, and in the Royal Council 
Chamber Hastings had learned to admire Richard's 
cautious bravery, his ready generosity, and his 
shrewd sagacity. They had mutual tastes ; had 
stood side by side at the cradle of printing and 
literature. The rough occupation of war had failed 
to engross their entire interest, and a common 
culture had led them to enjoy and patronise the 
gentler arts of music, painting, and poetry. 

At Edward's funeral Hastings followed him with 
mute sorrow to his grave, and saw him laid in the 
choir of St. George's Chapel. He did not dream 
that ere three months had elapsed he too would be 
buried beside him. 

He had failed to realise, even in the familiar and 
unrestricted intercourse of a warlike camp, that an 
ambition to possess the Crown secretly dominated 
Richard's life ; that at the root of all his affability, 
his. ^generosity, and his bravery, in his brother's 
service, the worm of coveteousness gnawed in- 
cessantly. He had associated for long years with 
the apparent, and not the real man. Shakespeare 
has put such a confession in his mouth : — 

' ' I think there's never a man in Christendom, 
' ' That can less hide his love or hate than he ; 
" For by his face, straight shall you know his heart." 

He returned from the graveside of the departed 



24 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

King anticipating no obstacle to the happy succes- 
sion of the young Prince of Wales ; but suspicious 
circumstances speedily disallusionised his mind. 
At the Council meeting called on May 4th to 
arrange the programme for the Coronation cere- 
monies, it became apparent to all that Elizabeth 
had no intention of laying aside the robes of 
authority. The leopard cannot change his spots, 
neither could she divest herself of her ambitious 
projects. The effort of Dorset, Rivers, and Lisle 
to place themselves in nearest proximity to the 
royal person convinced Gloucester, Hastings, 
Morton, and Stanley of the intention of the Wood- 
villes to monopolise power. Such a monopoly would 
have reduced Gloucester to a mere courtier, and 
placed him and his associates, with their fortunes, 
and their lives, at the mercy of their enemies. They 
could not tolerate the thought that the men who 
had resisted them in arms in the establishment of 
the Yorkist supremacy, should by a woman's favour 
step into the enjoyment of all the honours of hard 
won victory. As the " Croydon Chronicle " states, 
Hastings himself feared that if the supreme power 
fell into the hands of those of the Queen's blood, 
they would avenge the (imaginary) injuries which 
they had received. The immediate desire of the 
Woodvilles was to hurry on the young King's 
Coronation, and retain his person under their 
guardianship. The Coronation would have exalted 
young Edward to sovereign and independent power, 
abridging that interregnum in which Richard pro- 
posed to exercise the prerogatives of Royalty. Such 
a scheme Hastings could not further. He desired, 
in accordance with his knightly vow, to see the 
young King invested with the emblems of royalty, 
but surrounded and influenced by the strong and 



THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 25 

tried supporters of the Yorkist interest of whom 
Gloucester, by nature as well as by ability, would 
be tke leader. 

That the Duke desired to usurp the throne, or 
molest the person of the young King, he did not, 
and, in spite of numerous warning, would not 
believe. Loyal in heart, generous in disposition, 
confiding in spirit, he attributed to his illustrious 
friend those noble and knightly instincts that all 
his life swayed his own conduct. 

In such a spirit he seconded the Protector's deter- 
mination to withdraw the King from the influence 
of his uncles at Ludlow, and to instal him in the 
Tower. When Elizabeth appealed to the Council 
to despatch an army to escort her son to London 
he, believing the King's safety to be assured under 
Richard's protection, answered her impatiently, 
" Did she wish to protect the Princes from their 
own people or from their good uncle the Duke of 
Gloucester P" 

Undoubted evidence of a Woodville conspiracy to 
overthrow the Protector communicated to him at 
York by no less reliable a correspondent than the 
Lord Chamberlain himself, recalled Richard from 
York. 

According to More, '" The Lord Hastings, whose 
truth towards the King no man doubted, or needed 
to doubt, persuaded the lords to believe that the 
Duke of Gloucester was sure." His advice un- 
doubtedly strengthened Gloucester's decision to 
immediately remove Edward Y. from his uncles' 
influence; indeed, such a step had become im- 
perative if Richard proposed to retain any vestige of 
authority, for Dorset had already seized the late 
King's treasure, and had equipped a fleet without 
consulting him. If we are to believe Polydore 



26 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOITCH CASTLE. 

Yirgil, King Edward's will actually had appointed 
Bichard the young King's guardian, but for some 
mysterious reason the executors refused to act, and 
in consequence the provisions of the will never be- 
came public. 

Arriving at Northampton, where he had arranged 
to meet his nephews, the Protector learned to his 
surprise that they had been hurried a day's march 
forward, and that their maternal uncles alone re- 
mained to submit " all things that had been done 
to his decision." 

The Protector appears not to have acted hastily, 
but to have carefully considered the position, to 
have waited for the arrival of Buckingham, and 
after consulting with him and learning from him 
the latest news from the capital, to have issued 
orders for the arrest of Rivers and Grey. The 
following day he journeyed to Stoney Stratford, 
dismissed the King's servants, and replaced them 
by members of his own suite. 

E/Cturning to Northampton, he despatched a 
messenger to Hastings with intelligence of his 
action, requesting him to communicate the purport 
of his letter to the lords of the counsel resident in 
the metropolis. Hastings approved, for More tells 
us, " Now there came one not long after midnight 
from the Lord Chamberlain unto the Archbishop 
of York, then Chancellor, and after communi- 
cating to his Grace the arrest of the King and his 
attendant lords, adds, ' Notwithstanding, Sir,' 
quoth he, ' my lord sendeth your lordship word that 
there is no fear ; for he assureth you that all shall 
be well.'" 

The news of her relative's arrest decided the 
Queen to immediately seek sanctuary at West- 
minster. Arriving in the metropolis, Gloucester 



THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 27 

treated his nephew with consideration and respect, 
riding uncovered before him and calling out to the 
spectators in the streets, " Behold your Prince and 
sovereign," and on their reaching the Bishop of 
London's palace, summoning the lords spiritual 
and temporal, together with the Lord Mayor and 
Aldermen, to take the oath of allegiance. 

No restriction seems to have been placed on free 
access to the King, but the counsel met daily at the 
episcopal palace. The Protector submitted his 
action at Stoney Stratford to the counsel, who 
approved it, and sanctioned the committal of Rivers 
and Grey to Pomfret Castle. 

And now the question of the young monarch's 
future place of abode came before the considera- 
tion of the Council. It was felt that the limited 
accommodation of the palace imposed upon the 
Prince an unnecessary restraint. Several suitable 
places were mentioned. The Duke of Buckingham 
proposed the Tower, a suggestion that at the first 
mention evoked considerable opposition, but 
eventually received unanimous support. To this 
stage Gloucester and Hastings worked cordially 
together. The Yorkist party had by this time 
realised the latters' scheme ; they had obtained 
possession of the King's person ; they alone could 
in future control the government of England ; and 
the Woodville influence had been overthrown. The 
Lord Chancellor now desired to hasten the 
Coronation, and place full regal powers in Richard's 
hands until the King attained his majority. Such 
a consummation would have fulfilled his knightly 
vow and his late master's wishes. 

CATESBY. 

At this juncture a member of his household, a 



28 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

lawyer by training, emerged from obscurity into 
notorious prominence, to play lago to bis master's 
Otbelo. Catesby, a man well-learned in tbe law 
of tbe land and of good authority, baving been 
many years in Hastings' service, bad advanced to 
a state of close intimacy and brotberly affection 
witb bim, until bis master bad come to admit bim 
to bis near and secret counsel. Hastings, open 
and confiding, bad grown to use bim familiarly, 
until in tbe most secret matters be put no man in 
so special trust. Sir Tbomas More declares tbat 
no man was so mucb bebolden to tbe Lord 
Cbamberlain as Catesby. 

Tbis Catesby made advances to E-icbard, and 
became bis intermediary and spy. 

Tbe Protector bad by tbis time decided to retain 
tbe sovereign power. His ambitious spirit could 
brook no retirement. Tbrougb Catesby be sub- 
mitted a proposal to " take upon bim tbe crown 
till tbe Prince came to tbe age of 24, and in tbat 
interval to govern tbe realm as an able and suffi- 
cient King." Catesby was instructed to " prove 
witb some words cast out afar off " Hastings' mind. 
In sucb a subtle temptation tbe transcendent 
fidelity of tbe Lord Cbamberlain commands our 
wondering admiration. He distrusted tbe Queen, 
be bated ber relatives, and be loved Gloucester; 
but be refused to break bis knigbtly oatb. 

AVben otbers could be directly approacbed, even 
tbe men be trusted dare only to cast out some words 
afar off. He straightway without a semblance of 
prevarication spoke out bis mind : — 

' ' That I'll give my voice on Richard's side 
" To bar my master's heirs in true descent, 
" God knows I will not do it— to the death." 



THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 29 

His noble answer fixed his doom. The spy 
reported to Eichard that ''he had spoken snch 
terrible words that he durst no further break, and 
fearing lest their motions might with the Lord 
Hastings minish his credence, procured the Pro- 
tector to hastily rid him." 

Richard moved to the accomplishment of his 
foul purpose witii hestitating steps. He loved his 
victim well, and was loath to lose him, fearing lest 
his life shoiild have quailed his purpose ; but he 
plainly saw the impossibility of grasping the crown, 
save over Hastings' corpse. Yet he determined to 
give him another opportunity. More's account of 
the final scene of the tragedy that ended Hastings' 
life is dramatic ; Bishop Morton, who was present, 
a determined foe of the Protector, furnished his 
information : — 

A Council meeting had been called for June 13th. 
Stanley reiterated his warning to his friend to 
absent himself; but in vain. The members had 
been cunningly summoned, part to Westminster, 
the remainder to the Tower, to Hastings' party the 
summons announced the Tower as meeting place. 
E-ichard entered the apartment gay and smiling 
with pleasant greeting to the assembled lords. 
Accosting Morton he complimented him upon the 
strawberries his garden yielded, requesting the 
favour of a basketful for breakfast, and retired. 

In his absence the councillors commented on the 
incident, some predicted evil, others declared their 
inability to gauge the situation; but Hastings 
remained unmoved. 

" On my life, never doubt you " (quod the Lord 
Hastings) when again warned to be circumspect, 
" so surely thought he there could be none harm 



30 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOrCH CASTLE. 

toward him in that counsel intended where Catesby 
was." 

" Marry that with no man he is oflFended, 

" For were he, he had shown it in his looks." 

Stanley had warned him to absent himself, the 
pursuivant who met him on his journey to conduct 
him to the Tower in state received him regretfully. 
Dreams and omens had warned him away, and his 
very horse had stumbled under him. Dark clouds 
had gathered round him, and he knew it not ; for 
to the blind man darkness and light are uniform 
phases of a familiar environment. But what 
meant these strawberry leaves, were they a bait 
designed by Gloucester to tempt him with the 
prospect of a ducal coronet. Who can say? 

Richard returned in half-an-hour, but his 
humour had changed. He knit his eyebrows, he 
gnawed his under lip, and stretching out a werish 
withered arm (a fiction), inquired of the 
President : — 

" Of what are they worthy who have compassed 
the death of me, the King's Protector by nature as 
well as by law?" 

Hastings did not prevaricate, but answered : " To 
be punished as heinous traitors, my gracious lord." 

E/ichard moved assent, but with a chilling 
reserve, and in further inquiry continued: — 

" That is, that sorceress my brother's wife, and 
her kindred," and waited. 

Perhaps then the Lord Chamberlain realised the 
force of vStanley's repeated warnings, and saw his 
danger. Would his habitual love of truth and 
justice triumph in so fierce a furnace of temptation, 
would his deep-seated distrust of the Queen make 
smooth the pathway of dishonour, but the only way 
of safety. 



THE BUILDER OF THE CASTLE. 31 

His life depended on a cast. In a dense atmos- 
pliere of anxiety his colleagues listened, Richard 
himself shared their suspense, he woiild have wel- 
comed an answer that would have bound a powerful 
adherent to his interest by the unbreakable 
traditional bond. It would have rendered his 
usurpation easy of attainment ; but he had thrown 
the dice — and lost. 

Hastings replied in the frank and fearless 
manner of old days : — 

" Heinous, indeed, my gracious lord — if true." 

The words sealed his doom. Richard struck the 
table with his fist, and the chamber filled with 
armed men. 

" Comest thou to me with ' ifs,' traitor," he cried. 
I will make good thine answer on thine own body. 
I arrest thee, shrive th3^self a pace, for by Saint 
Paul I will not dine until I see thine head off." 

" What, me, my lord !" Hastings exclaimed. 

One short hour in which to prepare for eternity. 

No kiss of farewell for wife or son, no last hand- 
shake with any friend (for in the scuffle Stanley, 
wounded on the cheek, had slipped under the table 
and vanished after Morton), but to be hustled by 
rough soldiers to his doom, to such a pass the Lord 
Chamberlain of England, the beloved servant of 
the late King, had come. 

A priest, who happened to be in the Tower, heard 
his confession and absolved him, then " he was 
brought forth to the green beside the Chapel, within 
the Tower, and his head laid upon a log of timber 
(recently felled), and there stricken off ; and after- 
wards his corpse, with his head was interred at 
Windsor beside the body of King Edward lY." 



THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 

CHAP TEE II. 

A.D. 1483-1506. 

A REQUIEM MASS. 

THE horror of the tragedy in the Tower haunted 
the Palace of Ashby-de-la-Zonch, like a 
hideous nightmare. Members of the household, 
and tenants on the estate alike, mourned the loss 
of a gracious lord. Ashby-de-la-Zouch imme- 
diately, and Leicester county generally, owed much 
to his considerate patronage. He had obtained a 
royal licence to hold annual fares at Ashby on St. 
Simon's Day and at Whitsuntide ; a privilege that 
contributed to the material prosperity of the towns- 
mien. Since the erection of the castle the town's 
population had considerably increased. The baron 
had established a household that resembled a 
petty sovereign's court. Young scions of the 
noblest families of Leicestershire and the neigh- 
bouring counties deemed it no indignity, but a 
distinction, to take service under the Grand 
Chamberlain of England — the King's adviser and 
companion. Such time-honoured families as the 
Harcourts, Chaworth, Danvers, Sacheverells, 
Babingtons, and Turvilles sought admission for 



THE AVEXGER OF BLOOD. 33 

their sons to tlie Castle lioiisehold as pages and 
esquires. The Baron's benefactions had hitherto 
maintained the service and fabric of St. Helen's 
Chnrch ; his generosity had restored and beautified 
the sacred edifice. The influence of its ministry 
contributed to the maintenance of religion and 
morality in the household and the town. Its 
fifteenth century buttresses recall the Baron's in- 
terest in religion. It nestles under the Castle's 
battlements. Its priests exercised spiritual over- 
sight in his family and household. In his last 
will Lord Hastings bequeathed a suit of vestments 
and £50 in money to support a holy father to say 
daily Masses for his soul's repose in the life be- 
yond. The Protector offered no hindrance to the 
quiet observance of the Grand Chamberlain's 
obsequies. Erom the grim Tower loving friends 
and faithful servitors carried his decapitated body 
to the stately seclusion of St. George's Chapel at 
Windsor, laying it with holy rites beside the new 
covered grave of his master, King Edward IV. At 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch the flag drooped to half-mast 
upon the Castle keep ; from all the sacred houses 
of the neighbourhood cowled monks gathered in 
the stalls of St. Helen's Church; the members of 
the household came in sad procession from the 
Castle ; favoured townsmen crowded into the 
vacant spaces ; the organ's deep notes swelled 
through chancel, and chapels and aisles ; and the 
solemn Memorial and Requiem Mass commenced. 
All eyes rested on a chair of state, upon which the 
widowed Baroness sat calm and solitary, except 
for the young heir and children clustered beside 
her, striving in her woman's heart to banish the 
mocking presence of Jane Shore, and think only 
of her husband's greatness, and his goodness. 

4 



34 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

Tlie Lady Catherine secluded lierself in her own 
apartments, granting admittance only to her 
children, her waiting ladies, and her confessor. 
Sorrows came to her not singh^, but in battalions. 
Under the law of attainder her husband's estates 
had become forfeit to the crown; the law of 
treason branded his very name as anathema ; even 
her own private fortunes were endangered. In 
the interest of her children it behoved her to appeal 
to the Protector, her husband's murderer, but his 
former friend, for grace. 

The blow that inflicted her bereavement caused 
her acuter pain, because of the hand that struck 
it. In her immediate sorrow she could not 
repudiate family ties of long duration. The 
associations of kinship die slowly. She had for 
years admired and honoured Gloucester as a royal 
relative. King Edward, by his marriage with 
Lady Woodville, and by surrounding his throne 
with commoners, had narrowed the historic gulf 
between royalty and the nobility. She herself had 
sprung from one of England's most noble families, 
and in consequence of existing matrimonial 
alliances between members of the York and the 
Neville houses, had been accustomed to meet 
princes in the easy familiarity of domestic inter- 
course, a sphere from which pomp and state are 
relegated to outer society. Richard had spent 
many months of his boyhood under the King- 
maker's guardianship at Middleham Castle, where 
she as an elder cousin of Anne Neville had become 
acquainted with him. After her second marriage, 
she had frequently entertained him in her hus- 
band's London mansion ; probably she had extended 
a welcome hospitality to him in Ashby Castle, 
where he had come to discuss matters of importance 



THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 35 

to tlie State, with the Lord Chamberlain. As his 
hostess she had seen his finest parts. A long and 
intimate acquaintance had ripened into affec- 
tionate regard, quickened by Gloucester's 
marriage with Anne JN^eville. The brutal wars had 
robbed her of all her natural protectors, the King- 
maker, Clarence, Montecute, King Edward, and 
last of all her husband, and left Richard her only 
guardian, therefore in her supreme sorrow and 
loneliness, within a month of her bereavement, she 
appealed to him to stay the tide of ruin. 

richard'vS protection. 

ISTor did the Protector turn a deaf ear to her 
petition. The murder of Hastings, probably the 
sole crime of his brief life, sat uneasily upon his 
conscience. It had gained for him a crown, but 
it had bequeathed to him a legacy of haunting 
regrets, to be purged, as he sadly told his soldiers 
at Bosworth Field it had been, by salt tears and 
strict penance. 

An Harl MSS informs us that at Reading, July 
23rd, 1483, he bound himself to protect her, and 
to secure to her and her children all their rights 
and possessions, granting her the wardship of her 
son and heir, and the keeping of his castle and lord- 
ships, forbidding any of his subjects to do them 
wrong ; but admonishing his said subjects to assist 
them on all occasions. Her circumstances renewed 
by such a covenant, the Lady Catherine settled 
down to a conventual seclusion in the castle, mani- 
festing no interest in the affairs of the outside 
world, and receiving any advances from Court with 
a pathetic and an apathetic reticence. With the 
passing of the days her loneliness increased. The 
activities of the Castle had hitherto radiated from 



36 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

the commanding will of the Lord Chamberlain; 
his fiat had silenced dissensions; his commands 
had been the foundation stone of discipline; and 
his approval the fonntain head of promotions and 
honours. Every department of the Castle became 
disadjusted by his absence. Such a state of affairs 
promoted an uneasy restlessness amongst his 
metropolitan retainers (who had followed him 
through his adventurous career), and led many of 
them to seek service in the Protector's household, 
the only employment open to them; while the 
Ashby servitors moved about their routine duties 
with the spiritless indecision of masterless men. 
But the personal loss of the widowed Baroness out- 
measured theirs. It burdened her with the entire 
management of the estates, and with the training 
of the young heir. It deprived her of those in- 
numerable and unnoticed attentions, that an 
indulgent husband lavishes upon the honoured 
mistress of his household. The sagacious states- 
man, the intrepid soldier, whose renown had 
created an atmosphere, in which her high-born 
womanhood had found a full satisfaction, had 
passed into the world of shadows, and she began to 
realise that no propitiative kindness of her remorse- 
ful kinsman, could fill the void. In the con- 
templation of her sorrow she grew to hate its author 
and dream of vengeance. 

THE BOY BARON. 

To the mind of the boy heir the same thought of 
vengeance was becoming familiar. It had found 
its inception at the immediate moment when he 
heard the gloomy intelligence of his bereavement. 
He had been named Edward, in compliment to the 
late King; he had shared the games of the young 



THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 37 

Prince of Wales ; and liad rejoiced in his f atlier's 
popularity. He was just merging- out of boyhood 
into manhood, having attained his sixteenth year ; 
the age at which his father entered the Duke of 
York's household to commence his career. Dreams 
of knighthood were already floating through his 
mind, the guerdon of military service. He was 
no stranger at the late King's Court, and had 
anticipated playing a part in the immediate future 
in its activities. Such an ambition accorded with 
his rank and training. His tutors had arranged 
his educational curriculum to further such an end, 
yet at the moment he was about to lift the crystal 
cup of ambition to his lips, the Protector's cruel 
hand had dashed it to the ground. But, above 
all, filial love burned the word " vengeance " with 
red fingers of fire upon his heart. 

His mother's retirement left him frequently free 
to wander about the Castle at will, familiarising 
himself with its every nook and corner, and making 
the acquaintance of old servitors who had followed 
his father to the wars. Lingering in the guard 
room, or stables, he would listen to them as they 
related stories of their dead leader's prowess and 
greatness. 

The heirs of the house of Huntingdon invariably 
followed the leading of their fathers. No noble 
family can boast a choicer succession of virtuous 
mothers, who poured into the main stream of 
paternal blood their rivulets of gentle instincts, to 
modulate the passions, and to exalt the ambitions 
of succeeding earls, as they passed from the barbaric 
warfare of Plantaganet times to the ethereal 
idealism of the seventeenth century. Each baron 
and earl chose his bride so wisely, that from the 
erection of the Castle to its depletion, no heir ever 



38 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

had cause to blush at the mention of his mother's 
name. 

And so it came about that each successive heir, 
laden with the gracious bendiction of his mother's 
influence, stepped in early manhood into his 
father's footsteps, and at his journey's end left 
tracks ahead. 

A GLAD MEMORY. 

The bereaved affection of Edward Hastings con- 
templating his father's character discovered a 
chivalrous nobility that intensified his admiration. 
The gladdest moments of his young life had been, 
when the Baron had managed to evade the claims 
of office, and had arrived from London, for the 
fulfilment of the higher duties of domestic life, and 
the enjoyment of his wife and children's society. 
It had been his practice to mount the steps of the 
keep tower, that under the watchman's guidance he 
might peer into the distant horizon until his 
father's form, clad in glittering armour and open 
morion, emerged from the grey mists, and when 
the gallant cavalcade approached Ashby to bound 
down the steps and over the court-yard to the great 
gateway, eager to give the first welcome home, and 
be lifted on the pommel of his father's saddle. 

And after the stately banquet, in the pleasant 
privacy of Lady Catherine's boudoir, he would 
climb upon his father's knee and listen with rapt 
attention to the stories of battlefields and tourna- 
ments, of the great personages at Court, and 
especially of his playmate the little Prince of 
Wales. 

It was no wonder that the thought of the bloody 
scene on the Tower Green inflamed his passions and 
incited him to cherish a craving for revenge. The 



THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 39 

desire for vengeance filled his mind to the ex- 
clusion of all other interests, as a fixed resolution 
to exact retribution had dominated the late King 
at Towton. His father's blood called to him from 
the ground ; he could not shut his ears to its 
peremptory voice; he did not wish to do so; for 
the blood feud had changed the timid boy into a 
resolute man, resolved at any cost to be the 
Avenger of Blood. As a child his father had 
betrothed him to the Lady Mary Hungerford, an 
heiress of great wealth and proud family. As in 
his age people regarded a betrothal as a virtual 
marriage, young Hastings had received his fiancee's 
name as an appendage, in consequence, after his 
fathers death, he became known as Edward Lord 
Hastings of Hungerford, and by that designation 
King Richard summoned him, according to Hug- 
dale, to attend his Parliament, convened at West- 
minster on January 23rd, 1484. There he met the 
Stanleys and Lord Stanley's son. Lord Strange (who 
narrowly escaped beheadal on Bosworth Field), 
joining issue with them in a determined conspiracy 
to dethrone the King. The meeting of Parliament 
furnished excellent opportunity for the disaffected 
to propagate their schemes. If he attended all the 
sessions of Parliament, Edvv^ard Hastings, in 
common with other peers, approved Richard's 
titles ; voted for the attainder of the Countess of 
Richmond and a long list of influential men ; but 
regarded his action as tentative, and under 
pressure ; hoping and longing for the time when 
every vote would be reversed. 

He returned to Ashby from his Parliamentary 
duties to talk over with his mother Richmond's 
prospects. The Countess listened with interest to 
the London news; questioned him about the 



40 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

position of the young princes and their motlier; 
how her cousin Anne Xeville carried the honours 
of royalty ; enquired with eagerness how the con- 
spiracy fared, and what plans were laid for its 
furtherance ; for she, too, longed for the overthrow 
of the hated regime. 

EXFORCED IDLENESS. 

Through the two years of Richard's reign, 
Edward Hastings loitered at the Castle. Occasion- 
ally scraps of intelligence reached him from the 
Pretender over the water, intelligence of plans 
abandoned and of hopes deferred; but still of 
Richmond's fixed determination to accomplish his 
object. Everywhere circumstances pointed to the 
consolidation of the King's power. By royal pro- 
gresses he conciliated the large towns ; by con- 
stitutional methods of government he sought to 
atone for his late brother's tyranny; by a merciful 
administration of justice he won the common 
people's loyalty; and by open-handed generosity 
he endeavoured to bind his nobles to his interest. 
Xo English monarch ever had nobler conceptions 
of kingly duty; or a more sincere desire to heal 
the distractions of a kingdom oppressed by the 
rapacity of a long and bloody war. He was am- 
bitious to reform the laws ; to promote religion ; 
and to lift England to a foremost place amongst 
the nations. But the ghost of the murdered Lord 
Chamberlain followed him like a Nemesis. On 
account of that crime people associated others with 
his name (although even to-day historical research 
fails to substantiate such accusations). The Lan- 
castrians charged him with the murder of his 
nephews in the Tower, and of his beloved wife on 
the domestic hearth; they described him in 



THE AVEIS^GER OF BLOOD. 41 

chronicles and in ballads as an unnatural monster, 
a human ghoul. Misrepresentation and slander 
dogged his footsteps, and when he would have done 
well, evi] designs were associated with his actions. 
But at length the rumour spread through England 
that he had poisoned his Queen, to enable him to 
marry his niece. This rumour reached Richmond 
in France, and served as an incentive to immediate 
action. His contemplated marriage with the 
Princess Elizabeth was necessary to the establish- 
ment of his sovereignty, even in the event of 
Richard's overthrow; he dared not hesitate, for 
procrastination would have meant failure, accord- 
ingly he resolved to put his fortunes to the venture, 
and set sail with his unpromising armaments for 
England. On August 6th he landed at Milford 
Haven, with about 2,000 mercenaries. 

REBELLION. 

Emissaries were despatched to all parts of 
England with letters of appeal to all known sup- 
porters, and amongst the rest to Edward Hastings. 
He did not lose a moment, but with his father's 
frankness and fearlessness embraced Henry's cause. 
It is questionable whether he troubled to count the 
cost, yet the failure of the invasion would have 
spelt loss to all his estates and of life itself. Many 
in his social rank prevaricated ; some until the 
critical phase of the Battle of Bosworth, while 
numbers who had promised assistance sat cravenly 
at home in safet^^; but Edward Hastings im- 
mediately set himself the task of raising reinforce- 
ments for the invader. He appealed to his 
tenantry in Leicestershire, as his father had done 
fourteen years previously, to rally to his standard. 
The Lord Chamberlain had commanded with the 



42 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOrCH CASTLE. 

authoritative voice of a liigli-placed State official 
the allegiance of vassals who had automatically 
obeyed his will for half a generation ; his son 
pleaded for voluntary service from neighbours who 
had shared his great sorrow, and who loved his 
mother. He welcomed all comers ; but his coun- 
tenance beamed with pleasure as he greeted the 
sturdy bowmen from his farms and villages with 
their long bows cut from the branches of the church- 
yard yew trees, and their sheaths of arrows winged 
with grey goose feathers. He formed them into 
a resolute company that he knew would render 
faithful service in the coming conflict. They were 
the 

ATHERSTONE. 

representatives of an invincible order, who had 
proved its valour on the fields of France, and 
under his father's eye in the Wars of the Roses. 
Compared with the formidable rally of the former 
reign his numbers were insignificant, nevertheless, 
his body of 200 or 300 men would prove a valuable 
contribution to Richmond's little army; and would 
be especially welcome because of their intimate 
knowledge of the lanes of Leicestershire. The 
invading force consisted of foreign mercenaries and 
Welsh recruits, and Hastings' contingent would 
help to give an English complexion to the rising-, 
so necessary to an adventurer who aspired to wear 
the English crown; as well as check licence and 
pillage, during the occupation of the district from 
which they were drawn. For the first time in its 
history of a dozen years troops poured out of the 
Castle, bent upon a warlike expedition of a treason- 
able nature. Lord Hastings, with his knights and 
men-at-arms, rode in the van, with bannerets and 
streamers gaily fluttering in the August sunshine. 



THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 43 

They joined Eiclimond at Atherstone, wliere lie 
liad establislied his headquarters at the " Three 
Tons Inn." At that village Lord Hastings pro- 
bably met the two Stanleys; heard of his friend 
Lord Strange' s perilous position; and received an 
introduction to his future sovereign. 

The Adventurer's army consisted of 2,000 
foreigners, 2,000 T^elsh, and about 3,000 English 
Volunteers. Destitute of a common racial bond, 
it found itself threatened by an imposing army of 
about 14,000 Englishmen, encamped less than a 
score miles distant, composed of veteran survivors 
of the late wars, and northerners, commanded by 
the King himself. The invaders were strangers in 
the locality in which the impending battle must be 
fought, and to the manners and customs of the 
country people, upon whose compassion they would 
be cast in case of defeat. 

A continuance of their march along Watling 
Street would bring them in sight of Richard's tents, 
and enable that shrewd commander to attack them 
upon his own ground near Hinckley ; while, on 
the other hand, if they loitered at Atherstone the 
King would be likely to assume the offensive before 
an arrangement could be arrived at with the 
Stanleys. The anxiety he experienced at Ather- 
stone never faded from the memory of Richmond, 
even in his palmy days (when he had to beg for 
support, and the Stanleys prevaricated), neither 
did a generous recollection of Edward Hastings' 
spontaneous loyalty. But in his dilemma two 
causes at least contributed to his hopefulness. 
Numbers of deserters from the E-oyal army con- 
tinued to join him daily with certain information 
of the King's unpopularity; and the undoubted 
cordiality of his reception by the Leicestershire 



44 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

people, so agreeable a contrast to the veiled sym- 
pathy of StaSordshire. The Leicestershire knights 
and yeomen joined his standard unhesitatingly ; 
they were prepared to incur hazardous risks to 
ensure his success; they were familiar with the 
topography of the county, and formed a natural 
intelligence department of his army. 

THE OLD BANNER. 

The Ashby-de-la-Zouch contingent recalled great 
and bitter memories, appealing to the deep-sealed 
prejudice of all Midlanders, reviving the atrocious 
and fabulous charges that rumour had levelled 
against the King, and recalling the great sorrow of 
two years past. Its presence served to promote an 
esprit de corps of hatred and revenge that com- 
pensated for numerical weakness. A throb of 
gratification filled Richmond's heart as he gazed 
upon the illustrious Lord Chamberlain's banner, 
that had floated at Barnet and at Tewkesbury, but 
now was about to move forward with his forces 
against the Cause it had so long upheld, and as he 
watched the boyish face of the young lord who had 
come to him to fulfil the settled purpose of his 
youthful desire by avenging his father's death, he 
took courage. 



JOHN HARD WICK. 



All agreed as to the King's whereabouts, that 
he had pitched his tents at Stapleton, four miles 
from Hinckley, and about equally distant from 
Bos worth. To E-ichmond's intense relief and 
comfort a certain John Hardwick, of Lindley„ near 
Bosworth, a man of very short stature, but active 
and courageous, came to his headquarters and 
tendered his services, with some troops of horse to 



THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 45 

guide liim to the field, and advise him in the 
attack, how to profit by the sun and wind. 

Our information of the time the rival armies 
encamped upon the battlefield is uncertain and 
conflicting. Richard arrived first, and had 
stationed his forces before the invaders appeared, 
massing his centre at Stapleton, Lord Stanley's 
contingent half a niiie in his rear, and Sir William 
Stanley's regiments to the west of Amy on Hill. 
Richmond probably left Atherstone on Sunday 
evening, August 21st. Vnder John Hardwick's 
guidance he was enabled to make his movements 
with the precision of an expert chess player. On 
the same night Sir Simon Digby entered the royal 
encampment, staying there some hours, and after 
pinning the famous couplet, 

''Jock of Narfolk be not too bokl, 

For Dickson thy master is bought and sold. " 

upon the Duke of K'orf oik's tent, returned safely 
to the Earl, about 4 a.m. on the 22nd, the day of 
battle, with information of the utmost importance. 

Hutton states that the Lancastrian forces 
marched across Wetherby Bridge, and along Fen 
Lane, crossing the little rivulet The Tweed, which 
divides Bosworth Eield from the meadows, and 
encamped in the first close on the left, on the White 
Moors, one mile from the top of Amyon Hill, and 
half a mile behind Sir William Stanley's camp. 
'No absolutely complete account of the proceedings 
of the 20th and 21st remains, but fragmentary 
records of information afterwards gathered by 
contemporary writers from soldiers who took part 
in the conflict, when chronologically arranged, 
supply a narrative of interest. 



46 EOMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOX'CH CASTLE. 
THE KING. 

In tlie great Lost of over 20,000 combatants, one 
man alone commands our admiration, yes, and our 
sympatliy ; a fearless knighl^ of generous instincts 
and cultured mind, Ricliard tlie King of England, 
and the last monarch of the long Plantaganet 
line. In the light of all the infamy with which 
the immediate century has besmeared his name 
we note his conduct through the last day of his 
life to learn what he will say, and how he will act : 
for at the tribunal of History it is just that a man 
should bear witness of himself. The immortal 
Shakespeare has stricken his memory sorely. 
Gathering his information from prejudiced and 
inaccurate sources, and for that reason forming an 
unreal estimate of his character, he has burnt upon 
his royal brow an infamous brand, that patient 
research may eventually remove. In life he 
aspired to knightly honour, in death he sought im- 
mortal glory, and from the blood-stained field of 
Bos worth he appeals to History to grant him 
honourable mention. On the eve of his last battle 
he did not under-estimate the gravity of his 
position. His shrewd judgment, matured at an 
early age by association with brilliant commanders, 
and able statesmen, did not mislead him. He 
knew by experience what unreliable elements com- 
posed the armies of the fifteenth century. He had 
seen treachery alternately unseat King Henry and 
his brother Edward. He quite realised the weight 
of misrepresentation and malice that burdened his 
efforts, the disloyalty that had for the past weeks 
thinned his ranks, and numbed the fidelity of the 
soldiers even then present in his ranks, and be- 
cause of that knowledge, when he retired to his 
tent he could not sleep. True to that religious 



THE AVEXGER OF BLOOD. 47 

instinct tliat had characterised his whole life, he 
had ordered Masses to be said at repeated intervals 
through the day, and attended private Mass 
in his own tent. He believed in religion as an 
implement of government, and as a discipline to 
conduct. Before he sought sleep he had visited 
every post and out-post; and yet he could not 
sleep. Not ghosts of the past haunted his pillow, 
but the distracted thought of present conditions, 
the anxiety to defend the crown, it had been his 
life's object to gam. Two men, not dead but living, 
haunted his thoughts, avenging Hastings' death. 
They were the Stanleys. 

A MIDNIGHT PROWL. 

He sprang from his couch, and rousing Catesby 
Lovell and Ratcliffe, bade them attend him, and 
started on a visit to his various posts. He would 
see for himself how his soldiers were spending the 
midnight hour. He came to a sleeping sentinel 
and plunged his dagger in his breast, saying grimly 
to his companions, " I found him sleeping, I have 
left him sleeping." Passing into the darkness 
another sentinel challenged him, but he made no 
reply. The sentinel recognising him craved his 
pardon, and still received no answer. It was not 
to reward duty, but to detect treachery that he 
prowled through the camps. Standing ever and 
anon in the darkness beside the tents, listening to 
any conversation going on within, and passing on, 
he made his round ; and weary and silent returned 
at length to his own tent. It was now too late to 
sleep, even if kindly nature would have closed his 
eyes ; for in the east the clouds that touched the 
horizon were growing grey. Weary and agitated, 
the sleepless warrior recalled an old astrologer's 



48 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
A PREDICTION. 

prediction, that if ever lie came to fight a decisive 
battle on a field surrounded by towns ending in 
" ton/' the result would be calamitous to bim. He 
had come to such a field ; would the prophesy be 
fulfilled? In his tent the priest was unprepared 
to say his morning mass; and the breakfast was 
not yet laid. Eichard bit his nether lip, knitted 
his brow, and no man dared to speak. But he 
would pluck victory from the hand of fate. It 
was no time to meditate; the moment of action 
had come ; and after a hasty breakfast he stepped 
out of his tent to the summit of Amyon Hill, 
arrayed in shining armour, with the Crown of Eng- 
land circling his helmet, proud, fearless, indomit- 
able, prepared to enter into a death struggle with 
his rival cousin. He moved his troops to the crown 
of the hill, with the military precision born of long 
experience, instructing the manoeuvres. This 
done, he gazed long and anxiously at the blue and 
white striped tents of his enemies, noting their 
depositions. The Lancastrians lay up the low 
ground, creeping upward towards Amyon Hill, the 
left rear protected by the narrow Tweed, the right 
rear by the morass. His foes were drawn up in 
two lines, the archers first, the billmen behind, and 
the cavalry forming wings on either side. Sir 
William Stanley occupied a position between the 
two armies. 



The King placed his archers under Norfolk's 
command in his van, fianked by Surrey's horse- 
men ; his artillery, under himself, immediately 
behind them ; and in the rear his horsemen, under 
Northumberland. This done, on his great destrier 



THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 49 

" White Surrey," he rode along his ranks, review- 
ing his troops for the last time ; after which he took 
up a position in front of his centre, lifted his 
morion, and in resonant sentences addressed his 
soldiers. In his extreme hour of peril he mani- 
fested his habitual courage and presence of mind ; 
his words assist us to estimate his moral standard, 
and his religious thought; hiding nothing, 
extenuating nothing. They refer to the open 
crime by which he obtained the Crown, but speak 
of remorse and repentance. They are the final 
pronouncement of a man who knew that he might 
soon have to lay down the emblems of Royalty, 
and appear before the Almighty's Judgment Bar. 

"Although in obtaining this garland," he said, 
" I being seduced by sinister counsel and diabolical 
temptation, did commit a wicked and detestable 
act, yet I have with strict penance and salt tears I 
trust expiated and clearly purged the same 
offence; which I desire you out of friendship as 
clearly to forget, as I daily do remember and 
lament the same." 

Having cleared the way by a frank confession 
and an avowal of hidden repentance, he proceeded 
with royal dignity to appeal to his soldiers as 
subjects, to remember their oath of allegiance to 
him the King. He was their King by nature, 
and by law, his title had received Parliamentary 
endorsement. At the sight of the royal banners 
the traitors of the opposite army would remember 
their oath of allegiance, and would desert the 
foeman's banners. The French br aggers, 
drunkards, and cowards, most effeminate and 
lascivious people, would fly at the first assault. 
Therefore let them expel out of their thoughts all 
doubt, and avoid out of their minds all fear, and 



50 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

like valiant champions advance fortli their stan- 
dards. Let every soldier give one sure stroke, and 
surely the day would be theirs. He the King 
would fight in their van ; he would carry the Crown 
before them into the battle. As for me, I assure 
you I will triumph by glorious victory, or suffer 
death by immortal fame. Now, by Saint George, 
let us set forward. 

The trumpets sounded the advance, and from the 
ranks the soldiers cried, " St. George forward." 
The archers bent their bows, and a flight of arrows 
galled the advancing foemen, who responded with 
an even deadlier shower. The air became thick 
with arrows ; they flitted overhead like snow flakes 
in a wintry storm ; each bowman aiming at a 
human mark. Then Lord Oxford delivered his 
first attack. With a corps armed with battle axes 
he fell upon the royal billmen, crying " the day is 
ours " ; but the King's men held their own, each 
man giving one sure stroke, until Oxford's 
stricken troops reeled backward over the prostrate 
bodies of their dead and wounded. They had 
advanced too far from their supports. Norfolk 
noting this prepared to move round their rear and 
envelop them with the King's forces ; but the stout 
Earl, discovering his mistake, commanded his men 
to retire within ten feet of their standard. His 
manoeuvre successfully completed, a lull in the 
fighting ensued for a few minutes. No sooner had 
the indomitable Earl, however, closed his ranks, 
than a second time he assailed the Duke, with 
furious shock. This time he had the advantage of 
the sun behind him. The solar orb had risen in 
the heavens, and his bright rays dazzled the eyes 
of Richard's bowmen. The King called out for 
his rear to advance to their support, but Northum- 



THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 51 

l)erlancl refused to move, and stood aloof. The 
couplet pinned on jN^orfolk's tent was a true 
prophesy, "the King had been bought and sold." 
The result of his last battle had been settled before 
a blow had been struck, and Northumberland, for 
whose interest he had bearded the King-maker in 
the zenith of his power, had betrayed him to his 

TREACHERY. 

enemy. As Stanley had predicted at Atherstone, 
the treacherous Percy had forgotten all his master's 
generosity. It was the unkindest cut of all. But 
ere he had time to counteract Percy's treason, the 
King, glancing at his struggling squadrons, saw 
his leal and trusted Norfolk fall, and his valiant son 
the Earl of Surrey taken prisoner. Just then a 
messenger rode up to him with the intelligence 
that Richmond was at the foot of the hill with a 
few attendants. It was enough. His nerves 
strung to their utmost tension from want of sleep, 
and a knowledge of treachery in his ranks, he 
decided on a sudden impulse to bring the battle to 
an immediate issue. Calling Lovell, Ferrars, 
Clifton, Brackenbury, Ratcliife, Catesby, to his 
side, and bidding all true and gallant knights to 
follow him, he dug his spurs into " White 
Surrey's " flanks, and rode " out of the side of the 
range of his battle, leaving the avaunt guard 
fighting," to his last charge. Soldier of fortune as 
he was, and had been, his heart sickened at the 
sight of all the bloodshed around him, and at the 
thought of the dire calamity it would bring upon 
his realm; for he was the King. He would seek 
his rival and force him to mortal combat. Better 
that one of them should die than that thousands of 
his subjects should fall upon the field. He reined 
" White Surrey " at a little spring and drank a 



62 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOrCH CASTLE. 

deep draught. Then closing his helmet he dashed 
into Richmond's guard. Sir Eichard Brandon, the 
Earl's standard bearer, rode forward to oppose, and 
fell from his horse with a cloven skull; Sir John 
Cheney, one of the stoutest soldiers in the Lancas- 
trian army, advanced to check him, and received 
his death blow. Like a living thing his sword 
spoke words of death. He challenged his rival to 
personal combat, and Richmond heard but dared 
not move ; he was no match for his foeman. The 
fire of the Plantagenets flashed in the Monarch's 
eyes, he struggled to reach the Earl, but that 
nobleman's knights moved round him. All over 
the field combatants paused to watch the sight. 
Ever Richard's sword flashed in the sunlight, and 
its every movement slew a man. Had the Yorkists 
rallied round him, he would have won the victory, 
but at the critical moment Sir William Stanley, 
with his 3,000 fresh men, advanced to the Pre- 
tender's assistance. Catesby noted the movement, 
and hurrying to the King with a horse, begged him 
to retire. " Then to King Richard came a knight 
and said, ^ I hold it time for ye to fly, yonder 
Stanley dynts be so sore, 'gainst them may no man 
stand. Here is thy horse, another day ye may 
worship again.' " But Richard would not listen. 
*' Not one foot will I fly," he answered, " so long as 
breath bides in my breast ; for by Him that shaped 
both sea and land, this day shall end my battles or 
my life. I will die King of England." 

But while Catesby pleaded, Stanley's troops en- 
closed them round, as the incoming tide surrounds a 
sand hill. One after another Richard's companions 
dropped by his side ; the very ground became 
clotted with human blood, and slippery to their 
feet; but the wall of steel that hemmed them 



THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 53 

round contracted closer and closer. His standard 
bearer fell, his legs hacked off, still grasping his 
banner with a death grip, but Richard fought on, 
breathless, indomitable, his sword dripping with 
blood. ISo such sight had been witnessed in Eng- 
land for four centuries and more, since Harold 
fought the Norman invader at Hastings. Splashes 
of blood besmeared his armour; his helmet was 
riddled like a cullendar; wifeless, childless, aye, 
and almost friendless, the Royalist warrior on Bos- 
worth Field fought his last fight. At length, from 
sheer exhaustion his arm dropped to his side, and 
with a cry of treason, he too, fell. 

" He was a King that challengeth respect." 

GRATIFIED REVENGE. 

Whatever part Lord Hastings played in the battle, 
we may be sure he pushed his way through the 
crowds of elated victors to the spot where the King 
lay among the slain, and gazed with satisfaction 
upon his rigid face. The fight had lasted two 
hours at most. It commenced at ten o'clock; by 
noon the victorious invaders were scouring all the 
nearest villages in pursuit of fugitives. Mean- 
while a soldier found the Crown, hidden in a haw- 
thorn bush, and at Stanley's suggestion a heaving 
mass of soldiers of all ranks surged to Crown Hill, 
where Richmond took his stand, while his step- 
father placed the Crown upon his head, according 
to the unwarlike warrior, the most triumphant 
coronation ever English King received. Then a 
priest stepped forward, and, amid the groans of 
dying men, raised the Te Deum to the Prince of 
Peace. 

With a beating heart and throbbing brow, the 
young baron quitted the crowd, and wandered over 



54 ROMANCE OF ASHBT-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

the battlefield in search of his Ashby men. Some 
of them would not return with him. But he had 
accomplished his revenge ; he had seen the ruin of 
his father's murderer, and now he turned to living 
interests. 

AN ANXIOUS HOUSEHOLD. 

Since his departure an indescribable suspense 
had reigned in Ashby Castle. Through the long 
Sabbath and the succeeding night, the widow had 
kept her lonely vigil, thinking of her boy. A dis- 
tance of about ten miles separates the Castle from 
the battlefield. The thunder of Richard's artillery 
had faintly reached the ears of watchmen crowded 
on the Keep Tower, and at length had ceased ; but 
soon after noon they discerned messengers gallop- 
ing towards Ashby. They were Lord Edward's 
men with the news of victoiy. 

The same evening Edward returned with his 
crippled company; he had marched away in gay 
pageant, Avith flying colours, to the music of 
sounding trumpets and beating drums ; he 
returned with a bruised following, and as he rode 
through Ashby streets women and children looked 
anxiously for loved ones they would never see 
again. 

No rejoicings had celebrated his succession to 
his Lordship, only a solemn requiem Mass had 
fixed its period in his people's memories ; but now 
the cup passed freely in the Castle from lip to lip, 
and a semblance of former gaiety returned. In 
silent respect the household drank to the brave 
memory of their companions who had fallen at 
Bosworth ; with rapturous exclamations toasted 
the baron and his young bride ; for his vow ful- 
filled, he now in all probability brought her to 
Ashby. 



THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 55 

A YOUNG BRIDE. 

Lord Edward's marriage with the Lady Mary 
Hungerford marks an epoch in the history of the 
family. The heiress of great wealth, the daughter 
of an illustrious family of ancient descent, and an 
enthusiastic Lancastrian withal, whose relatives 
had rendered Henry excellent service, her influ- 
ence inspired the family policy as well as enhanced 
the new Monarch's interest in her husband's for- 
tunes. To a family exhausted by sorrow, and sur- 
feited with revenge she came, a fresh young life, 
ready to unfold her treasure store of virtues to an 
appreciative husband. But her merry laughter 
and her buoyant spirits failed to awaken in him a 
responsive gladness. A long thirst for revenge had 
dried up the fountains of youth. The Cup of 
Vengeance he had drained at Bosworth had parched 
his palate like a noxious poison, and left him a 
guest at the sumptuous banquet of material plea- 
sure without an appetite. A divine law, inflexible, 
eternal, has forbidden murderous recriminations ; 
declaring " Vengeance is Mine," saith the Lord, 
and he who drinks of the forbidden cup must taste 
the curse. One course lay open to him, and he 
took it. With his young wife, leaving the Castle 
to his mother's care, he moved to London to spend 
his days in slavish attendance at the Court and 
inglorious obscurity. One child God sent the 
unconsorted couple, the little George, to bind their 
love. The new Monarch treated the baron with 
considerate regard. His unostentatious fidelity 
won Henry's confidence, and promoted his child to 
be the playmate of Prince Henry. In 1506 Lord 
Hastings died in London, and found a secluded 
resting place in Blackfriar's Church. 



THE SPOILER OF THE CHXJUCH. 
CHAPTER III. 

A.D. 1506-1545. 

LADY MARY. 

GEORGE, the third baron, succeeded to the title 
at 18 years of age. His father's death laid 
upon the Lady Mary the responsibility of advising 
him in one of the most perilous periods of English 
history, a task her shrewd common-sense, her 
generous instincts, and her motherly disposition, 
pre-eminently equipped her to discharge. Her late 
husband had fully appreciated her capacity; 
leaving her executrix of his will and sole guardian 
of her son. Her portrait hangs in the picture 
gallery at Donnington Park, depicting a matron 
of middle age, wearing the white coif of the early 
Tudor period. It is the representation of a com- 
petent lady, gifted with the capacity of making 
domestic life homely. A kindly fortune had 
favoured her birth and upbringing, surrounding 
her maidenhood with the propitious guardianship 
of wealth. From her father she had inherited an 
abundant fortune, which by her husband's approval 
she had retained under her own control. 

Five years of widowhood she cheerfully devoted 
to her son's interest; establishing his footing at 
Court, and marrying him to Lady Anne Stafford. 



THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 57 

Then slie quietly settled down at Ashby, to spend 
lier last days in peace, and manage the estates 
during the young baron's absence at Court. Her 
marriage with the second baron had failed to 
nourish the romantic anticipations of her maiden 
days. Although an indulgent husband, as all the 
Hastings were, the Avenger had a good-natured 
friendship only to offer to her, in place of the 
chivalrous and enthusiastic participation in her 
endeavours to attain her maiden ideals, that she 
had expected ; and after living with him in mutual 
respect for almost a generation, sharing his routine 
occupations, and bearing him a welcome heir, she 
yet discovered after his decease that her widow's 
heart with its wondrous capacity to love remained 
untouched by a gladdening reciprocity. In her 
bower at the Castle she waited unconsciously for 
the knight to come to her, at the touch of whose 
hand, and the sound of whose voice, the unfamiliar 
emotions of love would awaken new interests, and 
strew the common path of daily duty with the 
flowers of spring. The choicest gifts of life lie 
always near our hand, if we but knew it, and so 
it was with Lady Mary, for the gentle knight who 
was to win her maiden heart became known to 
her in the person of the Comptroller of her house- 
hold. In her wedded days she had scarcely known 
him, meeting him occasionally during her visits 
to Ashby. But the strangers met in the fulfilment 
of a common duty, the administration of the Castle 
revenues. 

SIR RICHARD SACHEVERELL. 

On Lady Mary assuming the direct management 
it became necessary to accord Sir Richard 
Sacheverell frequent interviews, and the lone Lady 
with the dreary past came to admire his noble 



58 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

parts, his business aptitude, and unsparing- 
devotion to her interests. A mutual sympathy 
bound them together in a mutual regard. The 
Countess marked the first stage of her interest in 
Sir Richard, by conferring upon him for her life 
term several manors at a yearly rental of a red 
rose. Not a Avhite rose of York, the historic badge 
of the House that had raised the Hastings to 
greatness; for itsi petals had withered in Richard's 
reign and dropped at Bosworth Field, never to 
bloom again ; but a Lancastrian red rose. Three 
times about. Sir Eichard paid his courtly tribute 
to his blushing mistress, and then, with faltering 
accents, he poured into her ears the sweet story 
of his great love, and won the choicest gift within 
her power to bestow, her fair white hand in 
marriage. The story of their love is idyllic, for 
they did not quit the Castle ; but loved to ramble 
in the great park under the green trees, in ripened 
middle life, and silvered age ; no discords of the 
outer world disturbing their serenity; maturing 
philanthropic schemes to make glad the poor. 

FILIAL LOVE. 

Lord George accorded to his step-father a filial 
reverence, entering cordially into his benevolent 
enterprises, and serving with him as a co-trustee 
of St. Mary's Church at Leicester. The charity of 
the noble pair became a household word in the 
county ; for the Lady Mary had at length found her 
ideal companion ; amid the blessings of the grate- 
ful poor they lived to a hallowed old age ; and after 
they had passed into a larger ministry, and a 
completer union, the country people cherished the 
memory of them for many succeeding years, as 
the Lady Bountiful and the good Sir Richard. 



THE SPOILER OF THE CHUECH. 59 

A YOUXG COURTIER. 

Meanwhile Lord George pushed his way at 
Court, where his father had introduced him in his 
boyhood to the King, on that monarch's intimation 
that he desired him to share the games of young 
Prince Henry. His grandfather's great name, and 
his father's loyal services, prepossessed the 
sovereign in his favour. To a young nobleman 
desirous to carry forward a family policy of 
aggrandisement, such an introduction proved an 
unqualified privilege. Prince Henry and George 
Hastings, in the free intercourse of boyhood and 
the equalising influence of sport, were drawn to- 
gether in a mutual respect, that by reason of their 
common tastes and similar dispositions, ripened 
into a lifelong friendship, enabling the budding 
statesman in future troublous years, when illus- 
trious person rose by quick steps to royal favour, 
and fell with disastrous suddenness, to walk 
safely along a dangerous path because he knew 
his man, and could accommodate his actions to 
Henry's wishes. So fully did he possess the young 
King's confidence that immediately after his 
accession he appointed him to the coveted command 
of his Archer's Guard, a corps established by 
Henry YII. on his settlement in London. An 
old chronicle thus describes it: — 

" Notwithstanding all the precautions which 
Henry took to strengthen his title in a Parlia- 
mentary way, jet his reign was not without some 
violent concussions ; which greatly shook his new- 
acquired diadem. The partisans and favourers of 
the House of York were still powerful and 
numerous; and omitted no opportunity to exert 
themselves in that cause. This he seemed well to 
foresee, and his jealousy on that occasion made him 



60 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

institute a guard of 60 archers, under the command 
of a captain, to be always near his person in case 
of any sudden attempt. This was a new^ thing in 
England ; the Kings before were only guarded by 
the laws, and their subjects' affections. But to 
take away all jealousy of a standing army he 
declared the institution to be perpetual; and that 
it was no more than he had observed in his exile 
to be done by foreign princes." 

Only men of good family, of expert skill in 
archery, and of proved loyalty, were admitted to 
its ranks. The guards wore a rich livery; were 
quartered in or about the palace ; and attended the 
sovereign on public functions and in private life. 
To them was committed the solemn responsibility 
of protecting his sacred person. While private 
membership carried with it social distinction, the 
position of Captain became the covetous desire of 
men of high rank. Its duties gave its holder 
familiar access to the privacy of the palace ; and 
demanded unquestioning obedience to the single 
will of the sovereign. It was essential that the 
Captain should be at once observant and reticent. 
The fact of Lord George's appointment to this post, 
although a young man who had barely attained his 
majority, speaks eloquently of the strong and 
abiding confidence of the King. 

In his capacity as Captain of the Gruard he amply 
fulfilled Henry's expectations, by devoting him- 
self absolutely to his service. He did not reach 
the high social pre-eminence his grandfather 
attained in Edward's reign. That statesman had 
been accustomed to formulate the royal policy. 
The grandson exercised his abilities on an alto- 
gether lower plane. He merely obeyed his master's 
will, looking with the King's eyes upon the unfold- 



THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 61 

ment of the political drama of the early sixteenth 
century, with the result that, however the personse 
dramatse of the Court varied, he remained 
familiarly near the throne, taking part in all royal 
ceremonies and pageants. 

TOLTRXAY. 

He accompanied Henry in his grotesque cam- 
paign in France in 1513, drawing his sword, but 
scarcely fleshing it at the Battle of Spurs; and 
assisting in the capture of the important town of 
Tournay, when a populace of 80,000 surrendered 
and took the oath of allegiance to the English 
Crown. 

LORD George's marriage. 

His influence at Court paved the way to his 
marriage with Anne Staiford, the daughter of the 
Duke of Buckingham. In acknowledgment of his 
services in the Bosworth campaign, the new King 
had restored the forfeited estates of Henry Duke of 
Buckingham, whose father was executed in the pre- 
vious reign for treason. But the times were dangerous 
for scions of the royal stock, and Buckingham 
could trace his descent from Edward III., there- 
fore to consolidate his newly-recovered fortunes, 
he welcomed an alliance with the heir of the great 
Lord Chamberlain, whom his father had assisted 
Richard to destroy. The ancient blood feud had 

A FORGOTTEN FEUD. 

died at Bosworth, and George Hastings, encouraged 
by the Lady Mary, manifested no reluctance to 
unite his courth^ influence to the Stafford wealth. 
The Lady Anne Stafford had already quafled the 
delightful wine of love, but the premature death 



62 EOMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

of lier first husband, Sir Walter Herbert, had left 
her in the dolour of widowhood, and when Hastings 
came to her in his resolute way, to ask her hand, 
her parents seconded his wooing, and influenced 
her decision in his favour. 

A king's HENCHMAIN^. 

But it was not by courtly dalliance in royal 
palaces that Lord George was fated to further the 
aggrandisement of his house. The King had 
rougher work in view for him in the turbulent 
arena of politics ; a work that would make large 
demands upon his caution, his fidelity, and his 
patience, and that would carry him into dangers 
deadlier than the perils of battlefields. 

A YOUNG KING. 

On the roll of thirty-five peers summoned to 
attend the young King's first Parliament, June 25, 
1509, his name ranks eleventh. No English Parlia- 
ment ever met under happier auspices. The sordid 
reign of the victor of Bosworth had closed, and a 
young prince of chivalrous sentiments had seated 
himself upon the throne. Men welcomed his free- 
handed extravagance, as a pleasant contrast to his 
father's grinding parsimony. As it became known 
that the vast hordes of the late King amounted to 
close upon two millions, an impression gained the 
popular mind that Royal exactions would be dis- 
continued. The new King elevated to sovereign 
dignit}' by the premature death of his elder brother 
was universally accredited with a desire to enjoy 
his good fortune to the full, and promote the 
happiest conditions in the Commonwealth. Such 
a belief undoubtedly rested upon a foundation of 
probability, for the good-tempered young Sovereign 



THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 63 

•entered upon tlie duties of his high, offices, animated 
by an earnest desire to maintain in the serene 
seclusion of his Court, an atmosphere of peace and 
quietness ; if his Parliaments M^ould conform to 
such a consummation. To his mind ideal King- 
ship was a calm haven, around which the turbulent 
waves of Parliamentary passions might dash and 
spend their force, but into which they ought never 
to enter. The key-note of his reply to the Commons 
in 1532, when they presented a Remonstrance to 
him against the clergy; and of his address when 
dissolving the Parliament at Christmas, 1546, 
urges the desirability of charity, as a basis of peace. 
He held uniformly as a principle of government, 
that all subjects should willingly contribute to the 
sustentation of the Royal dignity and comfort, and 
that in return the Sovereign from his lofty social 
altitude above all law should condescend to interest 
himself in the growth of legislative reform; 
approving and reproving, the conduct of the Legis- 
lature as it conformed to, or deviated from, his 
superior view of utility. He could be indulgent 
as when he sent for Bishop Fisher in response to 
the complaints of the Commons, and quietly advised 
him to use free speech more discreetly in Parlia- 
ment in future ; he could threaten, as he did when 

CANDID ADVICE. 

Edward Montague, an influential member, opposed 
the passage of a Vote of Supply ; sending for him 
to Westminster Palace, and quietly saying to him, 
" Ho man will they not suffer my bill to pass,^' and 
laying his hand on Mr. Montague's head, who was 
then on his knees before him, " Get my bill passed 
by to-morrow, or else this head of yours shall be 
off " ; and he could expostulate with his Parlia- 



64 IlOMA^XE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

mentarians, treating tKem like a wise parent does 
spoiled children, as he did in 1532, when they 
petitioned him of his benignity to dissolve Parlia- 
ment and let them return to their homes, throwing 
upon them the odium of neglected duty, " You 
desire to have the Parliament dissolved," he said, 
" and yet you would have a Reformation of your 
grievances with all diligence, which latter desire is 
contrary to your petition." He regarded Parlia- 
ment as a convenient institution to arrange the 
details of plans devised by himself to further the 
well-being of his realm. He listened to ambitious 
subjects who had original views to lay before him, 
if such projects harmonised with his general policy, 
he accorded their authors freedom to formulate 
them into Bills ; but he threw the responsibility of 
their action upon their own shoulders, and however 
brilliant a statesman's past services may have been, 
whenever he ventured to assume an attitude dis- 
tasteful to himself, he crushed the olfender remorse- 
lessly. Cardinal Wolsey, Bishop Fisher, Thomas 
Cromwell, and Sir Thomas More, pre-eminent 
subjects of his reign, men illumined with creative 
ideas stepped beyond the radius of his silent, but 
vatchful observation, and fell, but George 
Hastings, who for many years had shared the 
silence, and conversation, of his master ; who had 
studied the very changes of expression on his 
countenance in periods of anger and disappoint- 
ment, as well as satisfaction and exultation, under- 
stood how to adapt his conduct to the King's con- 
ception of dutiful service. Neither was the King 

A ROYAL FATEON. 

ignorant of the ambitious desire of Hastings to 
restore the social prestige of his house. In the 



THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 65 

close companionsliip of early years, when Henry 
had no thonglit of enjoying regal power, bnt was 
pursuing his theological studies, the two youths 
had laid each his heart bare to the other's friendly 
view, discoursing on their several futures, and the 
young Prince had learned Hastings's dominating 
resolution, when he had no prospect of becoming 
able to further it. On his accession he remem- 
bered the old day dreams, and bound his former 
playmate to him, with bonds of gratitude, bonds 
that no Hastings had ever been known to break. 
He encouraged him to extend his territorial posses- 
sions frequently lending him sums of money to 
complete advantageous investments. On his Lord 
High Chamberlain submitting to his approval the 
names of peers whom he proposed to employ on 
Committees in the Parliament of 1509 he took care 
to insert his favourite's name on the list of Tryers of 
Petitions for England, Ireland, Wales, and Scot- 
land, giving him an honourable standing and a 
lucrative post in the new Parliament. This select 
Board consisted of the Lord High Chamberlain 
himself, William Warham Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, the Duke of Buckingham George's father-in- 
law, the Bishops of Winchester, Exeter, and 
Rochester, the Earls of Shrewsbury and Surrey, 
the Abbots of Westminster, St. Edmundsbury, and 
Abingdon, and Lord Hastings and Herbert, at that 
time the most influential subjects in the realm. 

All these together, or a number of these Bishops 
and Lords, had a power to call to them the Lord 
Chancellor, or two other of the King's Officers when 
there was occasion. They were to sit in the 
Chamber of the King's Chamberlain. 

But it was the Parliaments of 1529 and 1540 that 
most materially affected George Hasting' s personal 

6 



66 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

interests. In 1529 the King had long ago squan- 
dered his late father's savings; he had exhausted 
every conceivable method in the endeavour to 
govern England independently of Parliamentary 
intervention; he had spent £100,000 in obtaining 
an expression of opinion from the Continental uni- 
versities favourable to his effort to divorce the 
Queen; he had banished the illustrious Cardinal 
from his Council, and his Court ; and had reduced 
his personal circumstances to a state of impecuni- 
osity bordering on bankruptcy. The Great 

CARDINAL WOLSEY. 

Cardinal had been tried by the Court of the King's 
Bench, and had received sentence of outlawry ; but 
the King had hesitated to confirm the legal finding, 
and now possibly prompted by merciful considera- 
tions, and partly by a sagacious desire to please 
Parliament, from which he proposed to extract a 
large subsidy, had referred the matter to that body, 
putting the fate of their arch enemy in their own 
hands. Indeed, the King's mind was too seriously 
distracted by the interminable processes of the 
Great Divorce Case to give special attention to any 
other matter. Hope deferred made his heart sick, 
worry and continued opposition irritated his 
temper, and Anne Boleyn's importunities rendered 
him impatient to bring the business to an issue. 
He appears to have honestly persuaded himself 
that any carnal knowledge of his wife was 
incestuous. There is an undoubted ring of truth- 
fulness in his impassioned protest to the Speaker 
of the House of Commons, when he heard that a 
member named Temse, had been bold enough to 
propose that Parliament should endeavour to quiet 
the national unrest by petitioning him to take his 
Queen back again. 



TPIE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 67 

" Tlie King declared liis wonder that any 
amongst tliem should meddle in businesses which 
could not properly be determined in their House. 
But for this particular it concerned his soul so 
much, that he many times wished the marriage had 
been good ; yet since the doctors of the universities 
had generally declared it unlawful, he could do no 
less than abstain from her company. He, there- 
fore desired them to take this as the true reason, 
without imputing it to any wanton appetite ; since 
being in the forty-first year of his age, it might 
justly be presumed such motions were not so strong 
in him as formerly." 

In his determination to enlist the aid of Parlia- 
ment in his eit'ort to overcome the Pope's reluctance, 
he had packed the House of Commons with his own 
servants. But while the Lower House elected their 
Speaker and waited for the King to approve their 
choice, the Lords proceeded to an immediate attack 
on the Cardinal. Misinterpreting Henry's pre- 
varication for relenting, and determined to prevent 
his reconciliation with his fallen Minister, they 
drew up a series of forty-four articles condemna- 
tory of Wolsey's Administration, as unpopular in 
the realm, and prejudicial to the Royal dignity, 
and forwarded them to the Lower House for perusal 
and approbation, before submitting them to the 
King's Majesty. This incident aiforded Thomas 
Cromwell, the Cardinal's late Secretary, who had 
taken his seat as a new and unknown member, the 
opportunity to defend his late master, with such a 
passionate eloquence, as to obtain his acquittal, 
and at the same time to attract the King's attention 
to himself. 



68 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
HASTINGS MADE AN EARL. 

Whatever part Hastings took in the affair it is 
certain that he moved according to Henry's instruc- 
tions ; for at the adjournment of the Sessions he 
proceeded immediately to Westminster Palace, and 
received a Royal patent as Earl of Huntingdon, 
together with an annuity of twenty pounds. This 
promotion had been pre-arranged, for in anticipa- 
tion of it his son Francis, a boy of fifteen, had been 
previously summoned to the House of Commons 
under the title of Lord Hastings. 

Wolsey's overthrow accomplished, Parliament 
took its first determined step towards reformation 
of religion, by assenting to the circulation of 
Luther's writings in various parts of the Kingdom. 

CHURCH REFORM. 

The dissemination of Protestant literature 
awakened a great controversy in the nation, as to 
whether the errors therein denounced, did belong 
to the doctrine and government of the Roman 
Church. The burning light of public criticism 
turned upon the general conduct of the clergy, and 
denunciations found loud expression in the House 
of Commons ; which resulted in the introduction of 
a bill into Parliament against the Exactions of 
Probate, Testimonies, and Mortuaries, Pluralities, 
Non-residence, and the conduct of secular occupa- 
tions by priests. 

In the ranks of the ecclesiastic body one man only 
dared to defend the Church, John Fisher, the 
stately Bishop of Rochester, who assailed the bill 
with indomitable courage. 

A FIGHTING BISHOP. 

" My Lords," he said, *' here are certain bills 
exhibited against the clergy, wherein are complaints 



THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 69 

made against the viciousness, idleness, rapacity, 
and cruelty of bishops, abbots, priests, and their offi- 
cials. But, my Lords, are all vicious, all idle, all 
ravenous and cruel bishops and priests, and for 
such as we are, are there not laws provided already 
against such. Is there any abuse that we do not 
seek to rectify ? 

'' Or can there be such a rectification as that 
there shall be no abuse ? I hear there is a motion 
made that the small monasteries should be given up 
into the King's hands, which makes me fear that it 
is not so much the good as the goods of the Church 
that is looked after. Beware of yourselves and 
your countrj^; beware of your holy mother, the 
Catholic Church ; the people are subjects to novel- 
ties, and Lutheranism spreads itself amongst us. 
E-emember Germany and Bohemia, what miseries 
are befallen them alread}^, and let our neighbours' 
houses that are now on lire teach us to beware of 
our own disasters. Wherefore, my Lords, I will 
tell you plainh^ what I think ; that except ye resist 
manfully this violent heap of mischiefs offered by 
the Commons, you shall see all obedience with- 
drawn from the clergy and from yourselves ; and if 
you search into the true causes of all these mischiefs 
which reign amongst us you shall find that they 
all arise through want of Faith." 

Fisher's speech appealed to the conservative 
instincts of the Peers, who received it in silence. 
The Duke of Norfolk only, ventured to make a 
comment, observing, '' My Lord of Rochester, many 
of these words might have been well spared ; but I 
wist it is often seen that the greatest clerks are not 
always the wisest men." "My Lord," retorted 
Fisher, " I do not remember any fools in my time 
that ever proved great clerks." 



70 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 
A ROYAL REBUKE. 

The Commons bitterly resented the Bishop's 
interference, complaining of it to the King, who, to 
pacify them, commanded Fisher to appear before 
him, and " demanded of him why he had spoken in 
such a manner." The Prelate answered, '* that 
being in Parliament, he spake his mind freely in 
defence of the Church." The King himself could 
not disguise his sympathy and respect, for had 
Prince Arthur lived, and he himself entered the 
Church, according to his father's original intention, 
he would then have acted in similar circumstances 
as Fisher had done. 

"Well, my Lord," he advised, "you would be 
wise to use words more temperately another time." 

But by throwing his influence into the scale the 
King secured the passage of the bill, and another 
saddling his debt of £100,000 upon the clergy's 
shoulders. Parliament having started the Eeforma- 
tion, a movement coming within the jurisdiction 
of their own Court, turned to the King's assistance 
in the matter of the Divorce, a question distinctly 
for the Ecclesiastical Courts. 

AN APPEAL TO THE POPE. 

At Henry's suggestion. Parliament drew up a 
letter to Pope Clement YII., urging him to grant 
the Divorce. This letter Hastings signed as George 
of Huntingdon. With a sigh of relief Parliament 
returned to the consideration of Church reform, the 
sole subject of interest. No incidents of passing 
moment could divert their attention; to the lone 
Queen's pathetic appeal the Houses listened 
callously ; they adjourned for Anne Boleyn's pom- 
pous Coronation, and subserviently took the oath of 
allegiance to her ; but always resumed their attack 



THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 71 

upon the Cliurcli. They found by enquiries that 
since the second year of the late King's reign no 
less a sum than £160,000, in the form of annates 
had been despatched to the Vatican, and passed a 
law forbidding the collection of annates; they 
voted appeals to Home illegal in consequence of 
Clement's adverse reply to their letter about the 
Divorce ; they stopped the golden stream of Peter's 
Pence from flowing Homeward ; and renounced all 
Papal authority, declaring the King to be Supreme 
Head of the Church Supremum Caput Ecclesioe 
Anglicanoe. 

THE LESSER MONASTERIES. 

But the closing Session of this resolute Parlia- 
ment (assembled after a prorogation of fourteen 
months), dissolved the lesser monasteries, as a cul- 
mination of six years' incessant labour in the cause 
of Reform. Those years of destructive legislation 
had prepared men's minds to accept the inevitable. 
The preamble of the Statute runs as follows : — 
" That small religious houses, under the number 
of twelve persons, had been long and notoriously 
given to vicious and abominable practices ; and did 
much consume and waste the Church's lands, and 
other things belonging to them. That for about 
two hundred years there had been many visitations 
for reforming these abuses, but wdth no success; 
their vicious living daily increasing ; so that unless 
small houses were dissolved and the religious put 
into greater monasteries, there could be no reform 
expected in that matter. Whereupon the King, 
having received a full information of these abuses, 
both by his visitors and other credible ways, and 
considering that there were divers great monas- 
teries, in which religion was well kept and observed. 



72 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

which had not the full number that they might and 
ought to receive, had made a full declaration of the 
premises in Parliament. Whereupon it was 
enacted that all such houses which might spend 
yearly £200 or within it, should be suppressed, their 
revenues converted to better uses, and they com- 
pelled to reform their lives." 

The Bishop of London supported the bill, declar- 
ing, " That the lesser houses were as thorns soon 
plucked up, but the great abbeys were like putrified 
oaks ; yet they must needs follow, as others would 
do in Christendom, before many years had passed." 

fisher's last fight. 

But Bishop Fisher nailed his colours to the mast. 
He had already reached that stage of his life's 
journey where the cross of his fidelity had thrown 
its shadow across his pathway. An Act to attaint 
him had been passed in Parliament for holding 
correspondence with the Holy Maid of Kent, and 
the King's friendly interposition alone had saved 
him from calamity. Yet whatever course other 
Churchmen would take, he would not eat the 
Church's bread and betray her. At the preliminary 
consideration of the proposed bill in convocation 
he again spoke his mind, enforcing his argument 
with a parable. 

" An axe," he said, '' which wanted a handle, 
came upon a time unto the wood, making his moan 
to the great trees, that he wanted a handle to work 
withal, and for that cause he was constrained to be 
idle ; therefore, he made it his request to them, that 
they would be pleased to grant him one of their 
small saplings within the wood to make him a 
handle; who, mistrusting no guile, granted him 
one of their smaller trees to make him a handle. 



THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 73 

But now becoming a complete axe, lie fell so to 
work within the same wood, that in process of time 
there was neither great nor small tree to be found 
in the place where the wood stood. And so, my 
Lords, if you grant the King these smaller monas- 
teries, you do but make him a handle, whereby, at 
his own pleasure, he may cut down all the cedars 
within your libanus. And then ye may thank 
yourselves, after you have increased the heavy dis- 
pleasure of Almighty God." 

THE CLOSURE. 

The speech greatly influenced the minds of the 
assembled Churchmen ; its outspoken sentiments 
dumbfounded those who had already decided to 
support the King ; and all of them passed into their 
places in Parliament and voted for the bill, so 
greatly did they fear a Royal frown, except Bishop 
Fisher. He was irreconcilable, and the Oath of 
vSupremacy was put to him. Together with Sir 
Thomas More he laid his head upon the block, the 
only pillow for a weary man in the dark days of 
Henry, who dared to maintain an independent 
judgment. 

COURT AND AUGMENTATIONS. 

Another bill immediately created a Court of Aug- 
mentations of the King's revenue, which consisted 
of a chancellor, an attorney, and solicitor, ten audi- 
tors, seventeen receivers, a clerk, an usher, and a 
messenger. '' The Court was to bring in the 
revenues of such houses as were now dissolved, 
excepting only such as the King, by his Letters 
Patent, continued in their former state, appointing 
a Seal for this Court, with full power and authority 
to dispose of these lands, so as might be most for 
the King's service. 



74 ROMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOIICH CASTLE. 

The King was pleased to approve of the appoint- 
ment of the Earl of Huntingdon to a seat on the 
Board of Augmentations, with the great facilities 
for personal enrichment that the post conferred. 
The dissolution of the lesser monasteries, 376 in 
number, enriched Henry to the extent of an annual 
revenue of £32,000, besides conferring upon him 
goods and chattels valued by the corrupt authori- 
ties of the period, at .£100,000. But it spread the 
black pall of destitution over the English towns and 
villages, for 10,000 monks and nuns were driven 
from their homes, and flung upon the charity of the 
poor, who had hitherto been the objects of their own 
compassionate alms. 

And now the long Parliament dragged to its 
close. For its members its sessions had been 
fraught with toil and change and danger. It had 
influenced Huntingdon's present and future ; it 
had raised his social prestige; augmented his 
wealth, and estranged him from the Church of his 
forefathers; but had established him firmer than 
ever in the King's favour. About this time he 
resigned the captaincy of the Archer's Guard, 
receiving in place of it the more pretentious title of 
Protector of the North. 

A GREAT MARRIAGE. 

During the progress of the late Parliament, in 
the year 1532, he negotiated for his son Francis the 
great marriage of the Huntingdon family, a union 
with the Lady Catherine Pole, granddaughter of 
the Countess of Salisbury, and great granddaughter 
of the Duke of Clarence, brother to Edward lY. ; 
it afforded him no little joy to connect his house 
with that of the Great Chamberlain's Royal 
Master; and his far-seeing mind in the unsettled 



THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 75 

state of the succession, undoiibteclly anticipated 
great possibilities as a result of the union of his 
heir with the direct heiress of the Yorkist stock. 
The subjoined genealogical table explains such a 
hope : — 

George, Duke of Clarence, married Isabel Neville. 

Edward Neville Margaret, Countess of Salisbury 

(beheaded 1499). (beheaded in 1541), married 

/ Sir Richard Pole. 

^ / 

Henry Pole Lord Montague Reginald Pole, Archbishop of 
(beheaded in 1538). Canterbury, and Cardinal, 

/ d. 1558. 

Catherine Pole, married 
Francis Hastings in 1532. 

The youthful groom fully shared his father's 
reverential admiration of the bride, entertaining 
for her throughout his adventurous life a chivalrous 
respect, and an unfaltering devotion ; surroimding 
her with every possible indication of her rank, and 
speaking of her with a loyal deference. It was a 
marriage that raised the social status of the Hunt- 
ingdons, placing the future heir upon the very steps 
of the throne, but drawing upon him and his lady 
the snubs of jealous Elizabeth ; while outside the 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch household the public made 
lowly obeisance when she passed them as to a Royal 
princess. But the heiress of York brought her hus- 
band not only the honours of high descent, she 
added to the wealth of the family revenue. One of 
the chief acts of Henry's first Parliament had been 
to reverse the attainder of Edward IS^eville. Lord 
Herbert records: — ''That Margaret, daughter to 
George, Duke of Clarence, late wife of Richard de- 
la-Pole, Knight, petitioned the King that since 



76 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

Edward Earl of Warwick, her brother, had been 
attainted in a Parliament, held the 19th of Henry 
YII., and all his lands confiscated, it would please 
the King to restore her to blood and inheritance, 
and that she might be styled the Countess of Salis- 
buiy ; which was granted, and confirmed by Parlia- 
ment." 

The interval between the dissolution of Parlia- 
ment in February, 1536, and the summoning of that 
of April, 1540, brought inexpressible worry and 
affliction to the family of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. The 
fateful hand of Thomas Cromwell pushed round the 
fingers of change on the political dial. The mem- 
bers of the Board of Augmentations toiled inces- 
santly but in the dark, for no man knew Cromwell's 
schemes, until he himself revealed them in qualified 
statements. George Hastings, as Protector of the 
North, had to hurry with Norfolk northward to 
dissipate the Pilgrimage of Grace, and return 
to resume his attendance at the Augmentation 
Board. For him there was no rest of body or peace 
of mind ; a seething spirit of revolt expressed itself 
in the various counties of England on account of 
the suppression of the lesser monasteries, and, under 
Cromwell's iron rule, no man dared to speak 
frankly; while at home the winsome pale face of 
his high-born daughter betrayed the grief she 
would have feign concealed, at the intelligence of 
her father's execution in connection with the insur- 
rection her father-in-law had assisted to suppress. 

A POMPOrS PARLIAMENT. 

In this condition of mental distress he received 
the Royal summons to attend the Parliament of 
April, 1540. The writ of summons was directed, he 
noted, to Thomas Lord Cromwell, our Vicar- 



THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 77 

General of Spiritualities, the man whose supreme 
influence was about to overshadow every resolution 
of the immediate assembly — but one — and that the 
resolution that consigned him to the block. Every- 
thing had been done that would emphasise the 
importance of the great event. The King had been 
prevailed upon to attend in person, and an imposing 
assemblage of Peers and Commoners had been sum- 
moned to London. A great gathering assembled 
about the gates of Westminster Palace to accom- 
pany his Majesty on his State visit to his Parlia- 
ment, on his appearance forming into procession : — 

All Gentlemen and Esquires, 

Serjeants at the Law and Justices, 

Knights and bannerets, 

Abbots, Bishops, and Archbishops, 

The Lord Chamberlain of England, 

The Lord Chancellor, 

The Lord Marshall with his Rod, and 

Garter preceding him in the King's Coat, 

The King's Sword Bearer, 

The Cap of Maintenance, 

THE KIIs^G'S HIGHNESS, 

Dukes, 

Marquises, 

Earls, 

Viscounts, 

Barons. 

Each temporal lord was preceded by his ancient 
on horseback, and the Archer's Guard lined the 
route. 

At the entrance of Westminster Abbey the Abbot 
waited for the King, clad in Pontificalibus,and 
attended by his clergy, to precede him to the Quire, 
and when all were seated, the Mass of the Holy 
Ghost was celebrated. 



78 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

JS'o Parliament so memorable had ever gathered 
at Westminster, memorable on account of the 
unknown schemes flitting through the mind of the 
Silent King ; of the unspoken conjectures of Peers 
and Commoners as to how far Cromwell would yet 
proceed along the path of power, before the Awful 
Fiat stayed his feet; of the uncertainty of the 
proud Abbots, whether it was the last occasion, as it 
proved to be, on which they would sit and vote as 
Peers ; and of the fear, deep-seated fear, that ani- 
mated Peers and Commons alike. Seated among 
his brother Earls, silent, grim, but watchful, George 
Hastings assented to the preliminary bill appoint- 
ing the Committee for Religion, who w^ere to be 
excused attendance from the service of the House, 
and hatch the mischievous Six Articles, the Lash 
with six strings. 

THE COUNTESS ATTAINTED. 

Its cruel thongs would never lacerate his flesh. 
But a cold tremor of horror seized him, as with 
dilated pupils he watched the Yicar-General rise 
in his place, and exhibit openly a certain habit 
made of white silk, which was found by the Lord 
Admiral in the linen wardrobe belonging to the 
Countess of Salisbury. On the forepart of which 
garment were embroidered the arms alone of Eng- 
land, viz. : — Three Lions surrounded with a border 
of two different flowers, called paunces and mari- 
golds. On the back part of it was the device, which 
the Northern rebels lately used in their insurrec- 
tion known as the Pilgrimage of Grace. As he 
watched the stern and merciless Cromwell, he 
recalled the tragic story of the Royal Poles, and 
their association with the revolt that followed the 
suppression of the lesser monasteries in Lincoln- 



THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 79 

shire and Yorkshire. He had seen the fatal device 
alluded to npon the insurgents' banners, the five 
wounds of the Saviour, the sacred elements, and the 
name Jesus written in their midst, he had also seen 
the hateful Judas face of Sir Geoffrey Pole, who 
betrayed his own flesh and blood, giving secret 
information, true or false, against them, that 
brought Lords Exeter and Henry Pole, with Sir 
Edward Seville and others, before the Lord High 
Steward's dread tribunal, and doomed them to the 
scaffold. And now the Yicar-General aimed his 
relentless dart at the noble Countess of Salis- 
bury, the Yorkist heiress of the Crown, 
associating with her the Lady Grertrude, Exetor's 
widow. The charges alleged against her were : — 
" The maintenance of a treasonable correspondence 
with her son the Cardinal, and that she had for- 
bidden her tenants to have the New Testament in 
English, or any book licensed by the King's 
authority." With all the force of his high power 
Cromwell pressed his charge of treason against her, 
and obtained her conviction. Two years later the 
illustrious ladies met their fate, but not until their 
arch accuser himself had tasted the pangs of death. 
On the scaffold the aged Countess bore herself with 
Royal courage, scorning the headsman's request 
that she would lay her head upon the block, and 
bidding him smite it off as best he could, a task he 
is said to have accomplished in a horrible manner. 

DISSOLUTION OF THE GREATER MONASTERIES 

Having cleared his Master's path of the possi- 
bility of dynastic rivalry, the Yicar turned his 
attention to the completion of the great work of his 
life. The mitred company of Abbots of the great 
monasteries listened with spell-bound interest. 



80 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

The Abbeys of Westminster, St. Albans, St 
Edmiindsbiiry, York, Glastonbury, Gloucester, 
Ramsey, Evesham, Peterborough, Colchester, 
Reading, Malmesbury, Cwyland, Selby, Thorney, 
Winchcombe, Waltham, Cirencester, Tewsbury, 
and Tavistock were represented by their Lord 
Abbots. The monasteries of Hubn, Bardsey, 
Abingdon, Battail, Hide, Canterbury, and Coventry 
were unrepresented. Either their Abbots were 
dead or they had been suppressed, but their absence 
mattered not. Straight from convocation the 
Churchmen came to listen to their doom, and no 
man dared to oifer opposition. At eight o'clock 
on the Friday morning following Assension Day 
the Vicar-General read his bill. It provided: — 
" That leases of manors belonging to monasteries 
dissolved, or about to be dissolved, and assured to 
the King shall take effect. That the King shall 
hold, possess, and enjoy to him, his heirs, and suc- 
cessors for ever all monasteries and abbacies, 
priories, nunneries, colleges, hospitals, houses of 
friars, or other ecclesiastical and religious houses 
and places ; which since the 4th of February, 27th 
Henry YIII. have been dissolved, suppressed, 
renounced, forfeited, or given up, or by any other 
means come to his Highness, or shall be dissolved. 
As also all manors, lordships, lands, tenements, 
rights, liberties, &c., belonging to them. All which, 
except such as came by attaindure of treason, shall 
be under the survey and government of the King's 
Court of Augmentations of the revenues of the 
Crown. Other men's titles yet saved." 

Such was the most sweeping measure that had 
ever been laid before Parliament. It destroyed the 
monastic priesthood of England. As Fisher had 
predicted, the handle felled the great oaks. The 



THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 81 

total number of religious houses now dissolved 
amounted to 645, the heads of 27 of which had seats 
and votes in the House of Lords as mitred Abbots. 
In the various counties 90 colleges, 2,374 chantries 
and free chapels, and 110 hospitals were closed, and 
an income of £160,000, a full third of the national 
ecclesiastical revenue was assigned to Henry to 
spend in riot and bribe his courtiers. 

A GREAT OPPORTUNITY. 

Listening on his seat in Parliament to this great 
scheme of plunder, the Earl of Huntingdon per- 
ceived that the opportunity of his life had come to 
him of securing wealth preponderate to his social 
rank. As a Receiver of the Court of Augmenta- 
tion, a favoured courtier, and trusted henchman of 
the King, he would press his claim. This he did, 
securing the lease of the fat lands of the Great 
Abbey of Watham. In clutching his prize he 
suif ered no qualms of conscience to deflect him from 
the bypath of fortune. People everywhere 
accounted the plunder of the Church as sacrilege 
For a thousand years the Church of Rome had 
swayed the consciences and toned the lives of Eng- 
lishmen. The traditional associations of the long 
centuries had covered its nakedness with a gar- 
ment of sanctity. Its Bishops and Abbots had 
held high rank in social life; its monasteries 
studded the lovely hill sides of the English counties 
like diamonds in a monarch's crown ; all knowledge 
of art and literature had radiated from the monkish 
libraries ; and its monks had served the nation as 
teachers, almoners, preachers, and confessors. Not- 
withstanding the laxity of many Churchmen's lives, 
thousands of noble ecclesiastics from the seclusion 
of their cloisters still disseminated a holy influence. 

7 



82 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

The continuous tinklings of monastic bells; the 
unlimited charity of sacristans; and the ghostly 
glidings of tonsured priests into the death 
chambers of baron and serf, had witnessed through 
the long, dark ages of superstition and bloodshed 
of a better life, and led the way. 

The immediate effect of dissolution upon the lot 
of the common people was calamitous, plunging 
them into irrevocable poverty. It deprived parishes 
of religious services, the youth of the country of 
educational advantages, the sick of medical care ; 
labourers and artisans of employment, the homeless 
poor of charitable relief, and the dying of ghostly 
comfort. Sir Thomas More asserts that to his 
knowledge only seven peers accepted slices of the 
Church lands, but of these seven Earl George was 
one. The scruples of a hoary piety failed to deter 
the imperturbity of the King's man, who held the 
creed of the ancient barons : — 

" That they should take who have the power, 
" And they should keep who can." 

Bent as he was upon the aggrandisement of his 
house, the widespread sympathy with homeless 
Churchmen weighed with him but as a feather in 
the scale. He had no quarrel with the Church, he 
simply coveted its wealth. But his acquirement of 
the lease of Waltham Abbey lands furthered reform 
in his own household and in Leicestershire, and 
strained his personal relations with the Church of 
his forefathers. Foresight and discretion 

prompted Cromwell's advice to Henry, that the 
possession of Church lands would alienate their 
recipients from the old order ; for in the immediate 
future, and in later reigns, the families that had 



THE SPOILER OF THE CHURCH. 83 

become eiiricliecl by siicli means manifested the 
greatest aversion to Popery, fearing lest its re- 
establishment wonld lead to restoration. 

A LAST SERVICE. 

After the dissolution of the greater monasteries 
the Earl of Huntingdon retired from Parliamen- 
tary service and Court life, to Ashby-de-la-Zouch ; 
but had scarcely settled there, when a Eoyal mes- 
senger dismounted at the great gateway, and when 
ushered into the presence of the Protector of the 
jN'orth produced from his wallet and handed to him 
a commission to proceed northwards and extinguish 
the smouldering embers of thePilgrimage of Grace. 
Automatically the Earl obeyed, stamped out the 
revolt, beheaded Neville at York, and returned to 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch. It was his last service to the 
King. He was 54 years of age, and had spent 33 
years since his father's death at Court, in arduous 
and unquestioning attendance on a King, whose 
favour had proved to many an illustrious English- 
man a flowerj^ pathway to the fatal block. The 
memory of them haunted his mind, more and more 
as he meditated on the effect of the changeful years 
upon the King's temper. That Monarch had 
reached the sere and yellow leaf of autumn. Not- 
withstanding the subservient willingness with 
which Parliament had ministered to his disordered 
ambition, fate had banished peace and quietness 
from his domestic life ; had denied him the satisfac- 
tion of contemplating a strong succession ; the 
cause and object of his matrimonial difficulties ; 
and his disposition had grown morose and sus- 
picious. Weary of the increasing strain of service 
the cautious Earl felt that the time for absolute 
retirement had arrived, and the voices of the past 



84 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

confirmed that decision. Cardinal Wolsey, the 
last and greatest of a long succession of priestly- 
statesmen, had died at Leicester Abbey, his 
generous heart broken by the thought of princely 
ingratitude and unjustice ; Bishop Eisher, the 
stately and indomitable defender of the church he 
loved, and Sir Thomas More, the gifted author of 
*' Utopia," had welcomed martyrdom as a protest 
against the assumption of a holy title by an un- 
hallowed despot ; and Cromwell had exterminated 
the princely Plantaganet line, except the sweet 
lady who had entered his family as his son's bride, 
and her eminent uncle, who was safe at Rome. 

Surely it was safer to be out of sight and out of 
mind; nay, the longing for a peaceful eventide 
to a stormy day grew upon him, until the stately 
ceremony of the Castle service became distastefully 
pretentious, and he isolated himself in his manor 
house of Stoke Pogis, where the fever of ambition 
and worry could not break his quietude, but only 
the birds sang to him and the cattle loWed a welcome 
to sunset. When he died in November, 1545, they 
laid him in the chancel of the quaint old church, 
since distinguished by literary associations, and 
lie sleeps there quietly. 



F 



THE CONSPIEATOE. 

CHAPTER IV. 

A.D. 1514-1561. 

EANCIS, the fourth baron and second earl, 
succeeded to the title at the sober age of 31. 
As a youth of 16, he had received a summons to 
attend the Parliament of November 3rd, 1529, in 
anticipation of the higher rank about to be con- 
ferred upon his father, and three years later the 
Order of the Bath at Anne Boleyn's Coronation. 
For about twenty years as boy, youth, and man, he 
had lived in the fierce light that beat upon the 
throne of the second Tudor King. Probably on his 
father's retirement from the command of the 
Archer's Guard he had stepped into his place. 

AN EXPERIENCED GUIDE. 

His shrewd and successful father had from his 
boyhood impressed him with the traditional family 
aim, to forward the fortunes of the House by the 
dual method of ingratiating himself into the 
monarch's favour, and of making a wealthy and 
influential marriage. The two arrived at so com- 
plete and mutual an understanding, that until the 
elder's death in 1545 they worked together shoulder 



86 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

to shoulder as colleagues ; enabling tlie young 
adventurer on the turbulent sea of state service, in 
times of stress and storm to anchor his galley in 
the safe harbour of the veteran's experience. It 
is noticeable that Francis failed for the first time 
in the accomplishment of his projects after his 
father's death. Full of his father's ambitious spirit, 
but more daring and less cautious, he rushed un- 
hesitatingly forward at Northumberland's bidding, 
along a dangerous path that the first Earl would 
have refused in similar circumstances to take. 

Parental foresight and solicitude had secured for 
him the royal patronage ; introducing him to 
Henry VIII. in the happier years of his reign, before 
his private fortune was exhausted, when the eyes 
of his admiring subjects were still dazzled by the 
external glory of royalty; and before the savage 
irritability of surfeited self -gratification had settled 
upon his spirit, rendering his temper gloomy and 
morose. The same foresight had arranged his 
marriage with the Lady Katherine Pole, when her 
family was in the full enjoyment of restored 
position and wealth, by the good-tempered 
acquiescence of a King secure upon his throne. 

A PROUD FATHER-IN-LAW. 

Earl George regarded the marriage with a peculiar 
satisfaction. It would mingle the blood of his 
grandfather's royal master's brother with that of 
his heirs. In his highest flights of ambition, the 
Great Chamberlain would have scarcely dared to 
contemplate such an eventuality. It would give 
royal descent to his future grandson. One life only 
stood between the Lady Catherine and the English 
crown in rightful descent, that of a priest, bound to 
celebacy by religious vows sacred to his conscience. 



THE CONSPIRATOR. 87 

Over his cups and to the associates that he could 
trust, the old Earl often boasted of his daughter- 
in-law's royal lineage, as a factor of his family's 
future greatness. The old dream of the King- 
maker (alike the impetus of his schemes, and the 
cause of his downfall) of becoming the ancestor of 
a dynasty often visited him. The same thought 
to the end of life animated Francis, leading him 
to fondly regard his six children as princes and 
princesses ; prompting him to turn a willing ear to 
the tempter ; to indulge in a profuse display of the 
ceremonious appendages of wealth ; to extravagant 
outlay on apparel; and to the accumulation of 
riches as a solid buttress of his anticipated great- 
ness. He contemplated with extreme satisfaction 
the result of his father's acceptance of Church 
lands. The rents of the fertile lands of Waltham 
Abbey poured steadily into the coffers of his 
Comptroller of the Household at Ashby-de-la- 
Zouch, and he had no mind to stem the golden tide. 

THE LUST OF GOLD. 

In studjdng the development of the English 
Reformation, it is remarkable how tenaciously the 
noblemen w^ho had participated in the Church 
plunder clung to their gains, closing their eyes to 
the numerous evidences of popular disapproval, 
committing themselves to the propaganda of 
Luther's teaching, and supporting the aggressive 
legislation of the Reform party in Parliament; 
impelled by a fixed opinion that the conservation 
of their wealth depended upon the continual 
widening of the existing gulf between the Church 
of England and the mother Church of Rome. 
There could be no doubt that if the Pope succeeded 
in regaining his lost supremacy in England he 



88 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

would immediately demand restitution. Even in 
Queen Mary's reign, when such, a restoration 
appeared to come within the bounds of probability, 
and a subservient House of Commons, dominated 
by a majority of adherents of the old faith, passed 
a bill to restore the Papal Power, it was found 
necessary to insert a proviso that neither the Bishop 
of Rome nor any other Bishop, should have any 
power to convene, or trouble any person for pos- 
sessing Abbey lands. Even then, when the bill 
reached the Lords, it was set aside for a time ; until 
the members of the higher House were better 
assured of Protection for owners of Church lands. 
When the bill was actually under discussion Parlia- 
ment despatched a special messenger to Rome to 
acquaint the Pope plainly with the resolution of 
both Lords and Commons, that the restoration of 
his spiritual supremacy in England must be the 
price of his abandonment of all claims to the Abbey 
lands. Within a quarter of a century after the 
dissolution of Sacred Houses, the number of pro- 
prietors had largely increased. The material 
circumstances of some of those who had originally 
obtained gifts from the King had changed, 
necessitating sub-divisions and sales of interest to 
smaller owners, who came to the support of 
Huntingdon and his confreres in Parliament, 
whenever danger threatened their possessions. 
When Queen Mary had succeeded in affecting an 
apparent restoration of her realm to Catholicity; 
she yet felt that her work could never be complete 
until the Church possessed her own again, and at 
her instigation a bill was submitted to her dutiful 
Parliament proposing such a consummation. But 
even those who were well aifected to her were 
startled at the suggestion, insomuch that some of 



THE CONSPIRATOR. b\f 

them clapped their hands upon their swords 
declaring, not without oaths, that they would never 
part with their Abbey lands while they had 
weapons to defend them. This incident being 
reported to the Queen she wisely and discreetly 
abandoned her project. 

AN OPEN DOOR. 

Earl Francis had enjoyed the earldom about two 
years, when the death of Henry YIII. opened to 
him an adventurous career. He already held an 
eminent position in the peerage that rendered him 
eligible to carr}^ the staff of St. Edmund at the boy 
monarch's Coronation, and commanded the royal 
body guard ; but the social rank that conferred 
these privileges upon him had descended to him 
by inheritance. His ambitious nature could not 
live, and move, within the circle of inherited 
greatness; he must extend the circumference, as 
his predecessors had done. But such a design 
could not be accomplished by obsequious attendance 
on the royal person. The King was a mere child 
of nine years old, incapable alike of exercising his 
royal prerogatives or controlling the administration 
of law. In his helpless minority, the task of 
government devolved upon another. Henry YIII. 
had provided for such a contingency, by appointing 
a Royal Council in preference to a regency, naming 
its members in his will from both religious parties, 
in a proportion estimated to preserve a safe balance 
of power ; but placing the care of his child in the 
hands of his late Queen's relatives. Immediately 
after his death, however, the young King's 
maternal uncle. Lord Edward Sejmiour, assumed 
a protectorate and the Glovernorship of his person, 
monopolising in his own hands absolute power. 



90 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

and filling tlie realm of national affairs with his 
pretentions personality. His inordinate vanity 
expressed itself in the royal commission appointing 
his seat in Parliament. 

A POMPOUS PROTECTOR. 

" We have therefore, as well by the consent of 
our said uncle, and by the advice of other the Lords 
of our Privy Council, willed, ordained, and 
appointed, and do by these presents, will, ordain, 
and appoint, that our said uncle shall, and do sit 
alone, and be placed at all times, as well in our 
presence, as in our absence, upon the midst of the 
Bench or Stool, standing next on the right hand 
of our Seat Royal in our Parliament." 

Neither did the country resent the Duke's 
ostentation. It was believed that his elevation 
would assure both the safety of the King's person 
and the well-being of the Reformed Faith ; while 
Parliament had no objection to his enjoyment of 
the honours of state, so long as it could obtain the 
power. 

But the lynx eye of Warwick gauged the 
irresolution lying at the root of Somerset's pomp, 
and that nobleman secretly resolved to profit by 
it to accomplish his downfall. In the new con- 
ditions of the English monarchy subsequent to the 
Battle of Bosworth, in which the single authority 
of the King supplanted the power of the Baronage, 
the Sovereign found it peremptory to look out- 
side the peerage for practical business men, com- 
petent to serve him in the government of his realm. 
Whenever Henry YII. came in contact with the 
trading community in civil functions ; or the minor 
gentry on hunting excursions ; he kept a sharp 
look-out for prospective ministers to carry out his 



THE CONSPIRATOR. 



91 



policy. Empson and Dudley, notorious for their 
association with the proceedings of the Star 
Chamber; Sir Thomas Pope, the Treasurer of the 
Court of Augmentations; are instances of a 
numerous corps of royal agents, who rose from 
comparative obscurity in the early Tudor times to 
affluence. Undaunted by the tragic fate of his 
father, John Dudley, the son of Henry YII.'s 
infamous minister, by the aid of his father's fortune 
and name, gained admission to the peerage of 
Henry YIIL, under the title of Lord Lisle; so 
completely conciliating that monarch's favour, that 
he named him eventually in his will one of the 
members of his son's Minority Council. In this 

THE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 

man Somerset speedily discovered that he had to 
reckon with an ambition equal to his own. The 
two nobles, the one owing his importance to the 
incidental marriage of his sister with the late 
King, and the other to the soaring flight of an 
inordinate ambition, could admit no superiority. 
The one sat insecurely on the second seat of state ; 
the other aspired to unchair him, and to occupy 
his place. His elevation to the historic earldom of 
Warwick failed to slake Dudley's thirst for 
advancement. Gathering around him every one 
that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, 
and every one that was discontented, he established 
his cave of Adullum in Parliament, bribing the 
avaricious and ambitious with promises of wealth 
and honours. By his side Earl Francis took his 
place ; became his trusted henchman ; shared his 
schemes and intrigues ; and committed himself so 
entirely to his policy, as to close the door for 
retreat. The strong hand of Henry YIIL removed 



92 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

from the helm of the ship of state, the uncontrolled 
Parliament proceeded with reformation work. 
Warwick, although personally indifferent about 
religion, discovered that his prospect of advance- 
ment depended upon a close alliance with the 
vanguard of the Reform party, and declared him- 
self the Champion of Protestantism. Many per- 
sonal ties bound Earl Francis to the old faith ; the 
traditions of his family, the fidelity of his beloved 
wife, and the strong friendship existing between 
Cardinal Pole and himself; but his alienation 
from the priesthood incidental to his proprietorship 
of the Abbey lands, brought him under the 
influence of the purest spirits of the Reformation, 
leading him to examine Luther's teachings, and 
deciding him to embrace Protestantism, Drawn by 
precautionary motives of property defence to the 
councils of the movement, he found an interpreta- 
tion of Christ's Gospel that enlightened his heart 
and mind and moved him to labour for the extended 
circulation of the Bible as a means of promoting 
nobler religious opinions. Meanwhile, by in- 
sidious processes, Warwick accomplished the 
Protector's downfall, and ordered Huntingdon, 
with his archers, to convey him to the Tower. Then 
he seized the supreme power, constituting himself 
guardian of the King's person, and assuming by 
royal mandate the higher rank of Duke of 
Northumberland. He next bestirred himself to 
reward his followers, jDroving no niggard patron. 
He conferred the Garter upon Lord Huntingdon 
on the evening of the day he conducted Somerset 
to the Tower, made him a Privy Councillor, and 
granted him the royal license to maintain a 
personal escort of fifty men. Earl George had 



THE CONSPIRATOR. 93 

A GENEROUS PATRON. 

coveted sucli a privilege, and had been summoned 
before the Star Chamber at the instigation of 
jN'orthumberland's father for parading an unlawful 
following. This concession peculiarly gratified 
Francis ; it raised his social prestige ; it enabled 
him to accord the I/ady Catherine an attendance 
in some degree proportionate to her rank by birth. 
But besides honours Northumberland gave him 
wealth, for the one, unaccompanied by the other, 
had been a thankless boon to any lord of Ashby. 
Amongst other grants he received the estates of 
John Beaumont, the late Master of the Rolls, an 
adherent of Somerset, who had fallen with his 
chief. The Beaumonts were neighbours of the 
Huntingdons. 

At her husband's fall Mistress Beaumont retired 
to Grace Dieu, to learn with dismay that even that 
mansion had also passed into the Earl's possession, 
leaving her homeless. But a woman interposed 
on her behalf, none other than the Lady Catherine, 
and the Earl gallantly returned to her not only 
her mansion^ but the manor of Grace Dieu. 

THE earl's portrait. 

The Earl had now reached the zenith of his 
career, his portrait in Donnington Hall represents 
him at this period and challenges notice. The 
satisfaction of gratified ambition ; the conscious- 
ness of inherited prestige ; the firmness of high 
resolve ; and the easy condescension of lofty and 
assured social rank, blend in the expression of his 
face ; forming a composite likeness of a remark- 
able personage who would attract attention in a 
modern crowd. The full length figure standing 



94 ROMANCE OF ASIIBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

out from tlie huge canvas suggests a lordly pro- 
prietor walking proudly over his domains. 

The first Parliament of Edward YI.'s made some 
attempt to remedy the disastrous state into which 
agriculture had fallen after the suppression of the 
Abbeys. The Abbots from time immemorial had 
carried on extensive farming operations, and 
manufactured all necessary agricultural imple- 
ments. Each Abbey had possessed an organised 
statf, to the several officials of which the manage- 
ment of the various departments had been com- 
mitted. The erection and repair of farm buildings 
and workmen's cottages ; the care of plantations 
and woods ; the raising and herding of stock ; and 
the systematic tillage of the land ; had all received 
the attention of monkish overseers and their lay 
assistants. The dissolution suspended all such 
operations, destroying an established labour 
market, and flinging a great horde of helpless 
Churchmen and Churchwomen upon the charity of 
their former dependents, who themselves had be- 
come destitute. In addition, the large number of 
poor gentle people who had assigned their worldly 
estates to the Abbots in payment for an assured 
home for their declining years, were also rendered 
homeless. In place of the orderly routine of 
monastic activity, the new proprietors substituted 
old servitors as caretakers, caring little for the 
claims of the land, or the welfare of its inhabitants ; 
and thinking only of immediate gain, cheaply 
obtained. This condition of affairs resulted in an 
acute state of agricultural depression and social 
destitution ; an increase of vagabondism ; and a 
feeling of unrest throughout England, so prevalent 
that Parliament deemed it at length prudent to 
adjourn the work of Spiritual Reformation for a 



THE COXSPIRATOR. 95 

consideration of plans for social amelioration. One 
of the immediate cares of Edward's first Parlia- 
ment was to pass a resolution to prevent the Decay 
of Tillage and Houses, and appoint an influential 

ROYAL COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURE. 

committee, consisting of Lord St. John, with the 
Earls of Avondale,. Shrewsbury, Huntingdon, and 
Southampton, to elaborate the details of a bill. 
This reluctant duty performed, both Lords and 
Commons returned to the absorbing subject of 
Church Reform, initiating that execrable reign of 
Vandalism, that denuded our English churches of 
their pictures, statues, altars, and decorations ; 
wantonly destroying all monuments of the piety 
and culture of past ages ; and awakening the 
callous bigotry and contempt of the beautiful, that 
found expression in the uncultured practices of 
Oliver Cromwell and his party. An Act was passed 
declaring that all books used in churches such as 
Antiphonales, Missals, Grayles, Manuals, Pro- 
cessionals, Legends, Pies, Portuasses, Journals, 
Couchers, and Ordinals after the use of Sarum, 
Lincoln, and York, or any other private use should 
be destroyed ; and all those who had any image that 
did belong to any church or chapel, were required 
to deface it before the last day of June, 1550. 

UNIFORMITY OF WORSHIP. 

Having reduced the fabric of the churches to a 
common standard of unloveliness, Parliament pro- 
ceeded to establish uniformity of worship ; en- 
forcing the Book of Common Prayer, a compilation 
of Archbishop Cranmer from the various offices of 
the ancient faith, upon the clergy as a substitute 
for the rituals withdrawn. When we consider that 



96 ROMANCE OF ASIIBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

the mass of English people had at the time no 
quarrel with the familiar established service of the 
churches, we do not wonder at the contemptuous 
popular comment, that the Reformation was like 
to change as oft as fashion. The Act provided 
that an Order of Divine Service being published, 
many did wilfully abstain from it, and refused to 
come to their parish churches ; therefore all are 
required after the Peast of All Hallows next, to 
come every Sunday and holiday to Common 
Prayers under pain of the Church's censure. 

LEGAL PIETY. 

The following month saw the enactment of a Bill 
for the observation of Holy Days and Fasting 
Days. Its preamble set forth, " that men are not 
at all times so set on the performance of religious 
duties as they ought to be ; which makes it 
necessary that there should be set times, in which 
labour was to cease, that men might on these days 
wholly serve God. Which days were not to be 
accounted holy of their own nature but were so 
called, because of the holy duties, then to be set 
about, so that the sanctification of them was not 
any magical virtue in that time, but consisted in 
the dedicating of them to God's service. That no 
day was dedicated to any Saint, but only to God 
in remembrance of such Saints. That the 
Scripture had not determined the number of Holy 
Days, but that these were left to the liberty of 
the Church. Therefore it was enacted that all 
Sundays, with the days marked in the Calendar 
and Liturgy, should be kept as Holy Days; and 
the Bishops were to proceed by the censures of the 
Church against the disobedient." 



THE COXSPIRATOE. 



97 



MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS. 

One other Bill to sanction the marriage of priests 
completed Cranmer's scheme of reform, and passed 
into law about ten months later. Eemembering all 
his trouble in Henry's reign, and how he had to 
block the passage of the Six Articles until he had 
despatched his wife to Germany for safety, he 
made it definite. It declared " that many took 
occasion from the words of the Act formerly made 
about this matter to say that it was only permitted 
as Usury and other unlawful things were for the 
avoiding greater evils ; w^ho thereupon spoke 
scandalously of such marriages, and accounted the 
children begotten of them to be bastards; to the 
high dishonour of the King and Parliament, and 
the learned clergy of the realm ; who had deter- 
mined that the laws against priests' marriages 
were most unlawful by the law^ of God ; to w^hich 
they had not only given their assent in Convoca- 
tion, but signed it with their own hands. These 
slanders did also occasion that the Word of God 
was not heard with due reverence; whereupon it 
was enacted that such marriages made according 
to the rules prescribed in the Book of Service should 
be esteemed good and valid ; and that the children 
begot in them should be inheritable according to 
law." 

CRANMER's SCHEME OF REFORM. 

Such was Cranmer's great scheme for the Re- 
formation of the English Church, by the destruction 
of a golden system that had employed literature, 
painting, music, and architecture, as its ministers, 
and the substitution of an earthenware system that 
discarded the sublime assistance of consecrated 
genius, as a helpful teacher of the eye and ear, and 



98 ROMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

reduced worship to a basal deptli of dreariness. 
The same principle bound expression in each 
system, viz., priestly assumption, the same aim, 
viz., uniformity; and the same defect, viz., in- 
tolerance, only the new and improved plan intro- 
duced that curious anomaly, the married priest. 
Cranmer had at length succeeded in legalising 
marriage with priests, in defiance of the prejudice 
of his contemporaries. But many years elapsed 
before popular opinion assented to the principle, 
and even in the freer judgment of Elizabeth's reign, 
the Queen could never believe an Archbishop's wife 
to be anything better than his mistress. 

Earl Francis lent a ready assistance to the reso- 
lute Parliamentary minority who forced these 
startling changes upon the country, fully accepting 
Cranmer' s scheme, primarily in defence of his pro- 
perty and ultimately from conviction. His endorse- 
ment of the Reformers' programme of reform 
involved great changes in the Ashby household, 
and St. Helen's Church. There as elsewhere, pic- 
tures and images, long associated with worship, 
were removed, and the walls were lime washed in 
accordance with the requirements of a newer and 
more austere conception of religious worship. 

A GLOOMY OUTLOOK. 

But a worm gnawed at the bud of Northumber- 
land's prosperity. The preservation of the newly- 
established order depended upon the duration of 
the consumptive young King's life. It was mani- 
fest that the demise of the crown, and the succes- 
sion of Mary, would result in an attempt to restore 
the ecclesiastical conditions of pre-Reformation 
times, and the downfall of Northumberland's 
power. King Edward had reached that stage of 



THE CONSPIRATOR. 



liis fatal malady tliat evidenced a visible diminu- 
tion of strength dailj^ A hollow cough racked his 
attenuated frame from which the crude remedies 
of the unskilful physicians could afford him no 
relief. The prospect of his approaching dissolu- 
tion could no longer be concealed, and the expecta- 
tions of those who held dear the old faith revived, 
as the Angel of Death focused the sad face of Mary 
upon the blank sheet of the future. The great 
mass of Englishmen had never assented to Parlia- 
mentary interference with her title to the Crown. 
In the subdued atmosphere of repression in which 
she had groAvn up to womanhood, the tenets of the 
ancient faith had been her stay in adversity, and 
her comfort in friendlessness ; she had observed the 
advance movement of leading Englishmen toward 
Church Eeform with regret, declining to join in it, 
and holding with a woman's fidelity to her mother's 
religion. The pitiless treatment"^ of that beloved 
mother, and the brand of illegitimacy burnt upon 
her own brow by Cranmer and his followers, served 
to intensify her hatred of the dominant party, and 
her attachment to the suppressed Catholics. 

The Duke of ^Northumberland had not acted from 
strong religious motives in identifying himself 
with Protestantism. Personal considerations care- 
fully disguised had led him to that cause, as the sole 
sphere in which it was possible for him to attain 
supreme power, but he numbered in his following 
men of sturdier sincerity, who honestly desired to 
safeguard the Reformation, and maintain its out- 
posts, even at the risk of personal loss and peril. 
With these men Earl Francis sypmathised. The 
conviction grew daily in their \mnds that their 
legislative programme of reform forced upon the 
country by violent means could only be sustained 



100 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

by revolutionary metliods; and that, contrary tt. 
law and equity, a change in the succession must 
be accomplished. Such a great scheme did even- 
tually receive national sanction, but not in North- 
umberland's day ; and only after the claim of the 
Stuart Kings to the tenancy of the Throne by 
Divine Eight had been condemned in Parliament 
and on battlefields. 

The Heformers were aware that Parliament 
would not agree to the nulification of Mary's right. 
That august assembly had already stubbornly 
resisted Northumberland's endeavour to asperse 
the late Protector's Administration. That noble- 
man, therefore, worked upon the religious hopes 
and scruples of the dying King, pointing out to him 
the grave consequences to the Protestant cause that 
would follow Mary's succession, and urging that 
the reversionary interest in the Crown ought to be 
settled in the person of Lady Jane Grey, until by 
his importunities he obtained the Hoyal consent to 
such a course. The King's Council, composed of 
creatures of Northumberland, and supporters of 
his policy issued an order of Council to that effect. 
Then Northumberland sent out invitations to the 
elite of London to gather at Durham House on May 
21st, to witness the celebration of the nuptials of 
Lady Jane Grey and his fourth son. Lord Guildford 
Dudley, and of his daughter Catherine and Lord 
Henry Hastings, the heir of Earl Francis. To 
Lady Jane and her husband the union brought 
untimely death, to Lord and Lady Hastings' years 
of worry, but afterwards contentment and happy 
conjugality. 

Six months later the flag floated at half mast 
upon Windsor Tower, and England's King lay 
dead. 



THE CONSPIRATOE. 101 

COXSPIRACY. 

Northumberlaud at once commenced the great 
struggle of his life, for the realisation of his plots 
and schemes, that would exalt him, as he hoped, to 
the natural guardianship of the Sovereign, and the 
actual rulership of the realm. English subjects 
had learned to submit to the power de facto, and 
Northumberland had established his authority by 
playing Darby to the Eeformation party's Joan. 
When he ordered the proclamation of his daughter- 
in-law, public opinion neither interposed nor 
acquiesced. The Londoners received the Lady 
Jane's name without demonstration of welcome or 
resentment. One intrepid apprentice, however, 
expressed the prevailing sentiment by crying out : 
" The Lady Mary hath the better right," and sat 
the following day in the stocks to meditate upon his 
hardihood. Misfortunes baffled the Duke on every 
hand. Even the Lady Jane declined to allow her 
husband to be crowned except by Parliamentary 
consent. The Princess Mary fled from the neigh- 
bourhood of London, and iS'orthumberland deeming 
himself sure of the Tower, and the Capital, resolved 
to pursue her. No word of popular encouragement 
greeted him as he rode out of London at the head 
of his forces. Uncertain which direction to take, 
he made for Cambridge, but on arriving there, he 
found the local sentiment so strongly opposed to 
him, that his own troops caught the spirit of dis- 
affection, and refused to fight in his cause. Sur- 
rounded by popular clamour, Earl Francis and the 
Duke found it impossible to retire. Only one course 
opened to them, and they took it with what grace 
they could, by tossing their caps in the air, and 
crying " God Save Queen Mary." But their late 
repentance did not ensure salvation. Their captors 



102 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

coiiveyecl tliem to Lonclou, and by Mary's order, 
to the Tower, which they reached on July 19th, 
1553. There Lord Huntingdon languished in his 
cell for six dreary months, while Lady Catherine 
shed bitter tears in Ashby Castle, and wiped them 
with Royal courage to pen a letter to her eminent 
uncle, the Cardinal at Brussels, imploring him to 
intercede for her imprisoned husband. Since the 
murder of the founder of the House of Hastings, 
no head of that illustrious family had ever passed 
through the sullen gates of the Tower in captivity. 
The Earls had habitually visited the fortress under 
the Sovereign's authority and in his service. 
Throughout his adventurous career Earl Francis 
had hitherto found little time for meditation ; but 
during his incarceration he lacked not opportunity. 
To his mind depressed by the threatening possi- 
bilities of the future, the Tower, with its associa- 
tions, recalled bitter reminiscenses. A long suc- 

A REVERIE IN THE TOVTER. 

cession of disquieting memories haunted him. 
Great personages who had laid their heads upon the 
hateful block came to him in his lonely leisure. 
Anne Boleyn, at whose coronation the King con- 
ferred upon him the Order of the Bath; Queen 
Catherine Howard, whose hand he had kissed in 
homage ; the aged Countess of Salisbury, his wife's 
grandmother; Lord Montague, his father-in-law; 
Bishop Fisher, of stately presence (of whom Henry 
had sarcastically observed that the Pope's hat 
should find a headless Cardinal), who welcomed his 
doom day as if it had been a bridal morning, 
exclaiming, as the sun shone gloriously upon the 
scaffold : " Accedite adeum et illuminamine et 
vestrce non confundentor," and laid his head upon 



THE CONSPIRATOR. 103 

his cruel pillow with a prayer for the King and 
realm ; the brave Sir Thomas More, the cnltnred 
successor Wolsey, the most gifted man of his 
period, who climbed the scaffold steps with a sunny 
smile upon his lips ; and last of all, Thomas Crom- 
well, the great work of whose life had enriched the 
coffers of the Huntingdon family, the thought of 
whose horrible death made the Earl shiver, as he 
remembered how the executioner, a ragged and 
butcherly miser, chopped at his head for nearly 
half an hour; all visited him, and he recalled the 
very lineaments of their faces. An atmosphere of 
suspense pervaded his cell. One day, towards the 
end of August, an unusual excitement disturbed 
the monotonous routine of the fortress. If his cell 
window commanded the w^ay to the Tower Grreen, 
he watched them lead his patron the Duke of 
jN^orthumberland to his ignoble end. He had 
pleaded for life, " yea, the life of a dog, that he mav 
but live and kiss the Queen's feet, but in vain ; and 
in his mortal hour he rejected the Reformation and 
died a Catholic. " He certainly thought beet of the 
old religion, but that seeing a new one begin, run 
dog, run devil, he would go forward. But fortune 
decreed a better future for Lord Huntingdon. The 
late King's death that hurried him into participa- 
tion in a great conspiracy, covered him in defeat 
with shame, and immured him in a cell, gave his 
brother Edward opportunity to rise in the Queen's 

AN ADVOCATE. 

favour. Influenced by strong religious motives, 
he declared for Mary, manifesting the traditional 
Easting's activity in her interests. With skilful 
and watchful promptitude he thwarted an attempt 
to seize her horses at Greenwich, thereby rendering 



104 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

her a grateful service. As a reward of his fidelity, 
she appointed him to lead her horse from the Tower 
to Westminster at her Coronation, and in the trying 
days that established her authority reposed in him 
a confident trust such as Edward lY. felt in the 
first baron. She afterwards honoured him by call- 
ing him to her Privy Council; granting him the 
Manor of Bosworth ; conferring upon him the blue 
ribbon of the Garter, and creating him Baron 
Hastings of Loughborough. She entrusted to him 
difficult and honourable missions. He was one of 
the nobles despatched to quell Wyatt's rebellion; 
she assigned to him the delightful duty of escorting 
Cardinal Pole from Brussels to London ; and com- 
missioned him to undertake the less pleasant errand 
of conveying the Princess Elizabeth to Court. 

At the low ebb of the Earl's fortunes Lord 
Edward appealed to Mary to release him, and we 
cannot wonder that she consented to the prayer of 
such a petitioner, backed by the Cardinal's influ- 
ence. Parliament had met in October; Lord 
Huntingdon's name appeared upon the roll of the 
peerage, but his place was vacant in the House of 
Lords, and he was a prisoner. In releasing him, 
however, the Queen exacted a pledge of fidelity, 

A PLEDGE or FIDELITY. 

nay, more, the proof of service, commissioning him 
to pursue and capture his former friend, the Duke 
of Suffolk. In an age when treason filled the air, 
and ingratitude swayed the actions of statesmen, 
the Duke had earned for himself notoriety for 
treachery. After the suppression of Northumber- 
land's conspiracy, Mary, in making the round of 
the Tower, encountered him, and, anxious to con- 
ciliate the nobility, listened to his protestations of 



THE CONSPIRATOR. 105 

repentance, and liberated liim. To lier deed of 
queenly clemency, however, Suffolk responded with 
an act of ungrateful treason. On sending for him 
later to assist in quelling one of the numerous 
insurrections that disturbed her early reign, she 
received information that he had departed with his 
brothers to Lincolnshire, where the Grreys possessed 
estates, to raise his tenants against her, and in sup- 
port of his daughter. His expedition proved abor- 
tive, and dejected in spirit, he wandered from place 
to place, abandoned by his followers. Like a 
sleuth hound the Earl followed him. At length 
Suffolk appealed to the compassion of a forest 
ranger named XJnderhill. But Ilnderhill betrayed 
him to Lord Huntingdon, who, with his escort of 
200 men, conducted him to the Tower. 

DISGRACE. 

If the Earl hoped that the successful accomplish- 
ment of his task would propitiate the Queen, he 
was mistaken. A judicious clemency had moved 
her to pardon him ; in her heart she could not for- 
give or trust him. His Protestantism precluded 
him from Royal favour, and he made no effort to 
disguise his objectional views. She treated him 
with a chilly reserve ; for the sake of her friend- 
ship for the Cardinal and Lord Loughborough 
allowing him personal freedom and nothing more. 
As a solemn warning she commanded him to attend 
Wyatt's execution, but even from that significant 
spectacle the sturdy lord proceeded to the House of 
Lords, and with all the moral and social influence 
at his command, opposed the bill for the re-enact- 
ment of the old penal laws against heresy. 

His first appearance in the Parliament of the 
new reign was attended by prolonged worry. 



106 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

Nortliumberlancl had conferred the Beaumont 
estates upon him, after the impeachment of John 
Beaumont, the late Master of the Rolls. Beau- 
mont's son now sought to recover his late father's 
lands. The dispute occupied the attention of both 
Houses of Parliament. 

A SUBPCENA. 

The Commons Journal records : " That Mr. Beau- 
mont, a member of the House of Commons, having 
served a subpoena on the Earl of Huntingdon in 
Parliament time, the Lords were offended, and on 
April 17th, 1554, sent some of the judges to the 
Lower House, bringing the subpoena with them, 
and prayed the Order of the House for that offence. 
After some debate, it was resolved that eight mem- 
bers of the said House should declare to the Lords 
* that they took the executing of this writ to be no 
breach of privilege.' " 

Unpopular in the Commons, and distrusted by 
the Queen, the Earl found every avenue of activity 
closed to him. There remained but an existence 
of inglorious inactivity while Mary lived, and the 
hope of better prospects at Elizabeth's accession. 
To that event he looked forward with all the ardour 
of his sanguine temperament, and while the fires 
burned fiercely in Smithfield, and his old colleague 
held his white hand in the ascending flame to 
expiate his former cowardice. Lord Huntingdon 
devoutly prayed for the day of hope to dawn. Mean- 
while, in the gloom of her sick chamber the Queen 
feared him, lest he might join in an attempt to 
depose her, and place her sister on the Throne. 
At her command the Royal Council adopted a reso- 
lution that "it was agreed that on one pretence or 



THE CONSPIRATOR. 107 

another, Derby, Shrewsbury, Sussex, and Hunting- 
don should be sent out of London to their counties. 

RETIREMENT. 

This order probably saved Huntingdon from 
participating in another conspiracy. It did more ; 
it banished him to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, to the 
delightful society of the Lady Catherine and his 
children. In the serene atmosphere of home a fair 
little maiden clambered on his knee, who was 
destined in the coming reign, to be singled out on 
account of her Royal birth and beauty, to receive 
the offer of a crown. It would have been a con- 
summation profoundly gratifying to her ambitious 
father, but he lay quiet in the cold silence of his 
marble tomb in St. Helen's Church. As she grew 
from childhood to womanhood, the fame of her 
beauty filled the land, and reached foreign courts. 
Ivan Yassilovitch, the dread Czar of Muscovy, in 
his distant palace, heard and dreamed of an English 
bride. He despatched an embassy to Elizabeth to 
ask for Lady Mary's hand. The interesting inci- 
dent appealed to the Queen's love of the romantic, 
and she arranged that the Czar's ambassador should 
meet the Lady Mary at a large gathering in the 
Gardens of York House. In the presence of Queen 
Bess and her Court, the Ambassador prostrated 
himself before her, kissed her hand, and proffered 
his Sovereign's love. But the Lady Mary said him 
*' Nay " ; nevertheless, the ladies of the Court nick- 
named her '' Empress of Muscovy," an epithet that 
clung to her all her life. 

The news of Mary's death broke up the family 
gathering at Ashby Castle, causing the Earl to 
heave a sigh of relief, and make preparations for 
the resumption of active service. But while the 



108 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

Court ladies prepared the funeral toilet of tke 
Queen, the priests of the archiepiscopal palace 
administered the last Sacrament to Cardinal Pole, 
and despatched messengers to Ashby-de-la-Zouch 
to announce the melancholy event to Lady 
Catherine. 

Three peers of the Huntingdon family attended 
Elizabeth's first Parliament, the Earl, his son, 
Lord Henry Hastings, and his brother. Lord Lough- 
borough. On their journey to the metropolis, the 
Lady Catherine accompanied them, seated gravely 
in the cumbrous family coach, and escorted by a 
brilliant cavalcade to prove her uncle's will as 
executrix and heiress. 

THE REST OF DEATH. 

But although additional wealth filled the Earl's 
coifers, honours and Royal confidence, that he 
would have valued even more, were withholden; 
for the Queen received him coolly. As in Mary's 
reign, so in her sister's, the old epithet conspirator, 
clung to him. He obtained a command in the 
unsatisfactory French campaign, but returned to 
England discontented. Birthday presents, and 
protestations of loyalty alike failed to appease the 
Queen's distrust, and at the early age of forty-seven 
he again retired to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and died 
there. In the full blood of middle life the stout 
adventurer died, and the children he loved dearly, 
for whom his strong brain had schemed and plotted, 
wept around the bed side. In the faith of Jesus 
Christ the one priest of men he passed into his 
Gethsemene. ^Ai^d the Lady Catherine, his Royal 
wife, held his hand in hers until it became cold, 
her gentle accents followed him into the mysterious 
shadow of death, and the last fond glance of his 



THE CONSPIRATOR. 109 

eyes as they dimned to terrestrial friendship, rested 
ou the familiar but tear-stained face of the beloved 
companion of the troubled past. 

They laid him in the chancel of St. Helen's 
Church at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, over his remains 
erecting a noble tomb. On it his effigy and his 
lady's lie, carved in irresponsive marble, and he is 
represented wearing rich armour under the robes 
of the Garter. The inscription proclaims his 
former greatness. 

Here lieth the corpse of Francis, Earl of Hunt- 
ingdon, Lord Hastings, Hungerford, Botreux, 
Molms, and Moel, Enight of the most noble 
Order of the Garter, who deceased June 20, Anno 
Domine, 1661. 



THE ROYAL EARL. 
CHAPTER y. 
A.D. 1534-1695. 

COURT OF EDWARD VI. 

THE tliird Earl, following the example of his 
predecessors, spent his early years at Court. 
Northnmberland selected him to be the playmate 
and companion of the child King. 

He had attained his thirteenth year at Henry 
VIII.'s decease, and Edward was about four years 
his junior. 

The Court of Edward YI. is memorable in his- 
tory as a period of renascent religious reform, in 
which the English Reformers realised with a spon- 
taneous sigh of relief their freedom from the 
despotic control of the late King. 

The choicest spirits of the Reform Party — the 
men of light and leading who formulated its policy, 
and the sturdy heroes who shrunk not in the imme- 
diate future to confess their faith amid the fires of 
Smithfield — circled round the Throne. 

Edward enjoyed the inestimable privilege of 
intimate association with Cranmer, Ridley, Lati- 
mer, and kindred spirits — men of whom the world 



THE ROYAL EAllL. Ill 

of their time was not worthy — and of receiving 
instrnction from their lips in the teachings of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. With his yonng companion he 
drank thirstily at the fountain of their deep convic- 
tion and calm experience. The same educative 
influences moulded the thought, and dictated the 
action of both Royal youths. 

Edward has been declared precocious — he may 
have been — but it was the precocity of a Divine 
illumination that opened to his fresh young mind 
a region of spiritual reality, in which the lustre of 
an earthly diadem paled in the ineffable light ; the 
precocity of a soul life that revelled in sublime 
visions, and discovered its ideals at the foot of the 
White Christ's Cross. Loaded with the heavy 
robes of Royalty, weary with the weakness that 
heralded premature dissolution; separated from 
his sister Mary by a creed he believed to be blas- 
phemous ; and bereaved of his maternal uncle and 
protector by the machinations of a crafty and 
unprincipled adviser, like a pure spirit on an 
unworldly mission, he lived and moved amid a 
throng of ambitious men. 

It is interesting to note the influence he exerted 
over the character of his companion, who had come 
to his Court from the Ashby-de-la-Zouch home, 
where religion yet suffered in the transitional 
stage; where his gentle mother still cherished a 
woman's veneration for the Church of her girl- 
hood ; and the emancipated Earl still struggled 
against the mercenary and ambitious motives that 
originally attracted him to the Reformation; to 
find in the clear light of the serene atmosphere of 
Protestantism, the parting of the ways, and a 
patient guide to take his hand, and lead him along 
a path where God's word became a lamp unto his 



112 EOMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

feet. Ere he liacl paced the first stage of that 
journey Death, with an impartial hand, struck 
down the Royal guide, but the survivor pursued his 
pilgrimage in middle age, and in old age ; faithful 
to an inner light. With him, as us, it was no path- 
way through fields and flowers, and fragrant with 
the breath of roses — for him it led through arid 
deserts, and over stony steeps, made lurid b}^ the 
flames of martyrdom, it exposed him to Gardiner's 
frown and Bonner's curses, but it led him Home in 
the eventide of life, to a reunion with his sainted 
friend. 

On succeeding to the title and to the estates of 
the Huntingdons, at the age of twenty-six, the Earl 
inherited from his mother's ancestry, and from his 
late father's indiscreet pride, a legacy of irritation 
that embittered many subsequent years of his life, 
and laid upon him a burden of misrepresentation. 

While other proud scions of Royalty proclaimed 
their nearness to the Throne as offspring of the 
union between Henry YII. and Elizabeth of York, 
his Royal mother, then clad in widow's weeds, was 
the direct heiress of Greorge Duke of Clarence, the 
brother of Edward lY., and unhappy victim of the 
Woodvilles. The Parliament of Richard III. had 
declared the children of Queen Elizabeth of York 
illegitimate. Lady Catherine Huntingdon 

inherited a claim quite independent of Woodville 
blood. Earl Francis had boasted openly of his 
wife's right to Royal precedence, and of the great 
possibilities of his heir's future. 

Neither had the heir himself ignored his high 
birth ; his constant association with his mother ; 
the re-iteration of his father's outspoken day- 
dreams in his ears ; the grand traditions of the 
House of Hastings; the recollection of the com- 



THE ROYAL EARL. 



113 



manding position its lords liad invariably attained 
in the limited executive of Government all in- 
fluenced the character of the princely peer. 

But most of all the memory of Edward toned his 
conduct. 

During the latter years of his father's life he 
evinced an invariable reluctance to plunge into the 
vortex of public affairs, preferring the quiet of 
domestic life and the companionship of his 
beautiful wife. 

In the early years of their wedlock she needed 
his society and sympathy, for successively she was 
called upon to bear with great fortitude the painful 
intelligence of the violent deaths of her father, the 
Duke of Northumberland, her brother. Lord Guild- 
ford Dudley, and his fair young wife, Lady Jane 
Grey; and his beloved mother in the dreary 
months of the Earl's incarceration claimed his 
comforting solicitude. 

His succession to the Earldom lifted him to 
immediate prominence, and challenged the sus- 
picious watchfulness of the Queen. 

Her Majesty's coldness to the late Earl had 
caused consternation at Ashby-de-la-Zouch ; had 
embittered the close of his life ; and had provoked 
frequent discussions around the family hearth 
stone. Strained relations with the Sovereign were 
untraditional in the Huntingdon family. It was 
felt that a determined effort must be made to con- 
ciliate Elizabeth. Accordingly, at the termina- 
tion of the days of mourning, the Earl despatched 
an embassy to London with gifts for the Queen. 
His own offering consisted of a red purse containing 
£15 in angels, the Countess sent £10 in demi- 
angels, and the Lady Catherine added £10 in semi- 
sovereigns. Her Majesty acknowledged the gifts 
9 



114 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

of homage by retiiruing to Ashby presents of silver 
plate — a cup with, cover for the Earl weighing 
34Joz., a cup for the Countess weighing 37oz., and 
a cup for the Dowager weighing 18|oz. thus in 
awarding her favours fulfilling the words of the 
greatest exponent of human motives '' that the first 
shall be last, and the last shall be first." 

Regarding the acceptance of their gifts as an 
evidence of restored favour Lord and Lady Hunt- 
ingdon prepared to present themselves at Court. 

A conflict of emotions and fears filled the bosom 
of the Countess, as seated by her Lord's side, she 
journeyed to the capital, expecting to find many 
changes at Court. During the latter portion of 
Edward's reign she bad enjoyed a conspicuous and 
acknowledged prestige there, as the daughter of 
the actual Protector, meeting the Princess Eliza- 
beth on familiar social terms. But Mary's acces- 
sion and her father's downfall had banished her 
from its precincts for a period of five years, as a 
member of the attainted Dudley family. The 
revocation of the attainder, however, together with 
the rise of her brother, Robert Dudley, to the 
Queen's favour, had at length enabled her to appear 
in the Royal presence, but the uncertainty whether 
her Majesty would receive her with sunny conde- 
scension, or malicious spitefulness, filled her mind 
with temeritj^ 

THE QUESTION OF THE SUCCESSION. 

But while his Countess feared Elizabeth's snubs, 
the Earl fully realised that her jealousy might 
place him in a position of grave peril. Queen 
Bess resented even a jest that associated any living 
person with a reversionary interest in her Crown. 
For nearly 100 years the minds of statesmen had 



THE ROYAL EARL. 115 

been agitated by the great question of the succes- 
sion to the Crown, and that question was still the 
topic of the hour. Four noble personages nursed 
pretentions. All of them except himself claimed 
descent from the Queen's grandfather, the first 
Tudor King. Besides Mary Queen of Scots, the 
Countess of Lennox, daughter of Margaret o£ Eng- 
land by Archibald .Douglas, Earl of Angus, her 
second husband ; and Catherine, Countess of Hert- 
ford, the daughter and co-heiress of Henry Grey, 
Marquis of Dorset and Francis his wife, the eldest 
daughter and co-heiress of Charles Brandon, Duke 
of Suffolk by Mary the French Queen, and youngest 
daughter of Henry YII. had each sympathetic sup- 
porters. While the peace of the realm depended 
on the single life of the Queen, their claims ren- 
dered the national mind uneasy, in the conscious- 
ness that civil war still remained within the sphere 
of possibility. 

In Lord Huntingdon the Queen feared a claimant 
with a title based upon a descent quite independent 
of the Tudor line, the heir of a rival dynasty, of the 
illustrious Plantagenet race, and resented his claim 
with all the violence of a suspicious nature, until 
the discomfort of Court attendance became intoler- 
able. His prominent rank, and high birth, accen- 
tuated the slights her Majesty subjected him to in 
public, and unfortunately, circumstances tended to 
aggravate her anger. During her brief illness, in 
1562, public opinion distinguished the courtly 
young Earl as her probable successor. This coming 
to her ears on her recovery further enraged the 
Queen, prompting her to insult the Countess on her 
first subsequent appearance at Court. Lady 
Huntingdon returned home to the Earl prostrated 
with grief and annoyance. 



116 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

The incident moved the Earl to pen a pathetic 
letter to his brother-in-law imploring his interces- 
sion with his Royal mistress. 

" My Honourable Lord, — 

" I am sorry that my present disease is such, as 
there are left me but two remedies, either to 
swallow up those bitter pills lately received, or to 
make you a partaker of my griefs, thereby some- 
thing to ease a wounded heart. At my wife's last 
being at Court, to do her duty as became her, it 
pleased her Majesty to give her a privy nippe con- 
cerning myself, whereby I perceive she hath some 
jealous conceit of me. What grief it hath con- 
gealed in my poor heart (but ever true) let your 
lordship judge, whose Prince's favour was always 
more dear unto me than any other felicities what- 
ever." 

Perhaps no person in England understood more 
clearly the Queen's scruples in relation to the settle- 
ment question, and its subordinate project of marry- 
ing her to a suitable consort, than the Earl of 
Leicester. He himself earnestly desired to per- 
sonally further the great scheme. He was awaro 
that she still recalled vivid recollections of the 
circles of unrest that had been described around the 
persons of her sister Mary, the Lady Jane Grey, and 
herself in the troubled past, all monitory memories 
that warned her to brook the presence of no rising 
sun in the firmament of her Royalty ; and while he 
may not have regarded her first public pronounce- 
ment as the evidence of an inflexible determination 
to remain single, and probably did not, he could 
not dismiss from his mind the impression that the 
striking and unforgotten object lesson on infelici- 



THE EOYAL EARL. 117 

ious conjugality, she liad received in her sister's 
palace in; tlie contemplation of Phillip's brutal 
neglect, had created a violent prejudice. 

A SHREWD DECISION. 

In response to the Earl's letter. Lord Leicester 
undoubtedly influenced by personal, as well as 
brotherly motives, offered him sound advice, that 
led him to form a sane and safe resolution to at 
once and for ever abandon his claim to the succes- 
sion, and avail himself of the first possible oppor- 
tunity to communicate his decision to her Majesty. 
His action was the outcome of a sound judgment. 
He had not failed to learn from the disasters of his 
father's bitter experience, that innumerable pit- 
falls endanger the pathway to a Throne, and in pre- 
ferring the peaceful serenity of a domestic life, lived 
amid the grandeur and affluence of Ashby-de-la- 
Zouch Castle, to an unsubstantial prospect of a 
Crown, he chose the better part, and averted the 
distrustful vigilance of his mistress. 

After the adjustment of his difficulty with Eliza- 
beth, the Earl occupied himself for a season with 
legislative duties. 

But at the meeting of the Parliament summoned 
for September 30th, 1566, the perennial question of 
the marriage again cropped up. The Lords 
appointed a strong Committee to hold a conference 
with a select number of the Lower House, touching 
a petition to be presented to tiie Queen's Majesty, 
and nominated him a member of the said Com- 
mittee. His difficulties of the past, still present in 
his memory, induced him to readily assent. 

The petition was duly laid before Queen Bess, 
and elicited an expression of her private thought 
about the marriage, " though I can think it best 



118 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

for a private woman, yet I do strive with myself not 
to think it meet for a Prince," and no comment 
about the succession. 

BROKEN PEACE. 

But if the Earl indulged in self-congratulations 
at the termination of his troubles about the settle- 
ment, he was about to receive a rude awakening, 
for the Queen decided to associate him with the 
captivity of Mary Queen of Scots, and issued a 
Royal summons to her trusty and right beloved 
Earl of Huntingdon, enjoining him to attend her 
on her northward journey to interview her cousin at 
York, accompanied by a train of not less than 
twenty-six retainers, in best array according to his 
rank. 

SAD-HEARTED LADY OF SCOTLAND. 

The Earl received the commission with dismay. 
It opened to him the most painful episode of his 
life. Chivalrous by nature, and royal by lineage, 
no charge could be more repugnant to him than a 
participation in the jailorship of the Scottish 
Queen. 

The sad-hearted Lady of Scotland has for two 
centuries appealed to historians to accord to her an 
impartial judgment. Enthroned amid dark clouds 
of misrepresentation, and assailed by the vindictive 
malice of intolerant Scottish bigotry, she urges the 
effective plea that they who knew her most 
familiarly loved her most faithfully. 

We see her tall, lithesome figure, her coronet of 
brown hair, and her lozenge eyes, as she rides on 
horseback through the streets of Edinburgh, while 
her subjects pause to gaze at her queenly form, and 
cry, " Heaven bless that sweet face." We watch 



THE EOYAL EARL. 119 

her dancing madly in the ball room at Holyrood, 
and lying abed next day to receive her company 
French fashion, attended by her four Maries ; or 
rushing through Edinburgh streets in male attire 
at midnight; or flitting in homespun about the 
quaint streets at the foot of Stirling Castle. TVe 
admire her superb horsewomanship as she gallops 
on fleet steed over the eternal moors, out-distancing 
her sturdy male attendants. 

She was a creature of moods, and her moods were 
often a sure defence in peril. 

Her lips dropped as honey comb. Her laughing 
mouth could beseech or threaten, as when 
entrapped at Carberry Hill ; her tearful eyes could 
awaken pity in the hearts of stern Puritans, who 
approached her to denounce ; and her appearance 
half-clad, with bosom bare, and hair flowing loosely 
about her shoulders, at her palace window, could 
appease her angry subjects. 

Queen Elizabeth appointed three of her nobles 
to be the guardians of her cousin's captivity, viz. : 
The Earls of Shrewsbury, Hereford, and Hunting- 
don, and surely no trio of noble lords ever attempted 
a task more difiicult. Their instructions required 
them to convey their prisoner from Castle to 
Castle, always southward, further from her beloved 
realm, and nearer to fatal Fotheringay. 

At length they reached Tutbury Castle, when, at 
a conference of the three Earls at Wingfield, in 
Derbyshire, a letter was read from Elizabeth com- 
manding Lord Huntingdon to assume the sole 
charge of Mary, and to convey her to Ashby-de-la- 
Zouch Castle. 

Tourists are sometimes shown a chamber in the 
ruins, the wall of which is pierced by a cannon ball, 
and informed that during the Queen's residence at 



120 ROMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

AsKby a diabolical attempt was made to accomplish 
lier death, by treacherous means, but such a state- 
m.ent is untrue. 

In point of fact, the Earl and Countess enter- 
tained their unwelcome guest with generous 
hospitality and solicitous respect, providing for her 
enjoyment a Royal cuisine, and allotting for her 
accommodation a noble suite of apartments to 
which her ladies were permitted free access. But 
around her state hostile sentinels patrolled, for the 
boon she most desired — the choicest of all human 
privileges, viz., her liberty, was denied. 

During the Queen's incarceration the days 
dragged wearily for the Huntingdons and their 
household. The wiles of beautiful women, and the 
potency of gold were employed to overcome the 
fidelity of the Earl's servants, and sentinels. Not- 
withstanding the observance of the most scrupulous 
watchfulness, letters were both despatched and 
received surreptitiously. Bickerings and intrigues 
reigned round Mary's person. All interviews 
between fallen Majesty and the Huntingdons 
resulted in vexation and annoyance, for the Queen 
overwhelmed them with reproaches and inuendoes. 
She -wrote to Eenelon, the French Ambassador, 
complaining of Elizabeth's injustice in com.mitting 
her safety to the mercy of a rival. 

Presently, however, relief came to the Earl in 
response to earnest petitions, in the form of a royal 
mandate to remove Mary to Coventry. Her 
Majesty would have been well-advised to content 
herself at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, for throughout her 
captivity to its bitter end she never before or after 
found so kindly a jailor, or enjoyed such princely 
entertainment ; and her departure marked another 
stage of her journey to the scaffold. 



THE ROYAL EARL. 121 

COURT ATTEXDAXCE. 

Having found relief from Mary's reproaches, 
tlie Earl resumed his attendance at Court, accom- 
panying his sovereign on her visit to Westminster 
to open in person the Parliament of April 2nd, 
1571. The Journals of the House of Lords omit 
description of the pageant and ceremony, but Sir 
Simonds D'Ewes has supplied us with an account, 
on the authorit}^ of the manuscript of a private 
member of the Lower House. 

" Her Majesty sat in her couch, in her Imperial 
robes, and a wreath or coronet of gold set with rich 
pearls and stones over her head ; her coach, drawn 
by two Palfreys, covered with crimson velvet 
drawn out, embossed and embroidered very richly. 
Next after her chariot followed the Earl of Leices- 
ter in respect of his office of the Master of the Horse, 
leading her Majesty's spare horse. And then 47 
Ladies and Women of Honour ; the Guard in their 
rich coats going on every side of them ; the Trum- 
peters before the first sounding ; and the Heralds 
riding and keeping their rooms and places orderly. 
In Westminster Church the Bishop of Lincoln 
preached before her Majesty, whose sermon being 
clone, her Majesty came from the church, the Lords 
all on foot preceding her; and over her head a 
rich canopy was carried all the way. She being 
entered into the Upper House of Parliament, and 
there sat in princely and seemly sort under a high 
and rich cloak of estate ; her robe was supported 
by the Earl of Oxford, the Earl of Sussex kneeling 
holding the sword on the left hand ; and the Earl 
of Huntingdon holding the hat of estate ; and the 
Lords in their places on each side of the chamber, 
that is to say, the Lords Spiritual on the right hand 
and the Lords Temporal on the left. The Judges 



122 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

and her learned Counsel being at the woolsack in 
the midst of the Chamber, and at her Highness' s 
feet, at each side of her kneeling, one of the Grooms 
or Gentlemen of the Chamber, their faces towards 
her, the knights, citizens, and burgesses all 
standing below the Bar, her Majesty then stood 
up in her regal seat, and with a princely grace and 
singular good countenance, after a long stay, spake 
a few words to this effect : — 

" My right loving Lords, and you our right faith- 
ful and obedient subjects, we, in the name of God, 
for His service, and for the safety of this State, 
are now here assembled to His Glory I hope, and 
pray that it may be to your o^vn comfort, and the 
common quiet of our, yours, and all ours for ever." 

Then looking on the right side of her towards 
Sir Nicholas Bacon, Knight, Lord Keeper of the 
Great Seal of England, standing a little beside the 
Cloth of Estate, and somewhat back, and lower 
from the same, she willed him to show the cause 
of Parliament. 

But it is delightful to turn from the undeserved 
accusations of the Scottish Queen, and the jealous 
exactions of Queen Bess to a contemplation of the 
real Earl, and a consideration of his personal 
character. 

CHANGES AT ASHBY. 

His tenancy of the Castle had emphasized the 
strange change that had been creeping over the 
domestic and religious life of the household since 
Earl George acquired the Abbey lands. His 
acceptance of Church spoil and the retention of 
the same by Earl Erancis, marked the advancing 
line of Protestant encroachment, that steadily 
gathered force, and ultimately swept away the old 



THE ROYAL EARL. 123 

Catholic land-marks. No longer monks and friars 
were to be seen pacing across the conrt-yard pave- 
ment to celebrate Masses in the Chapel of the 
Fortress. No longer priests heard confessions in 
St. Helen's Church. Old-time figures and cere- 
monies contemporaneous with the Fortress itself, 
and, hallowed by tradition, had ceased to tax the 
credulity and awaken the resentment of the 16th 
century Bible readers, and had become superseded 
by a freer faith and simpler form of worship. 

In the Palace itself, where some cowled con- 
fessor had been wont to sit on the raised dais in 
the banqueting hall, beside the Earl and Countess, 
sharing their meals with the easy familiarity born 
of custom, a puritan divine had installed himself 
as domestic chaplain to help the hours along with 
theological dissertations. It was a change of 
method rather than of principle, the substitution 
of a priest in robes of later fashion, for in all 
human life there is nothing new, only the old 
recuperates in less objectionable forms, and the 
high placed officials of religion never relinquish 
the seat of honour and the dainty fare. 

And in St. Helen's Church the spirit of Reform 
had removed the stone altar, substituting one of 
wood; had stripped the walls of all artistic 
decoration, had splashed unsightly limewash over 
beautiful pictures; and had tossed the statues of 
the Virgin and the Child contemptuously into the 
grave-yard. In place of the delicious music of the 
Mass, the sonorous declamations of Puritan divines 
often reverberated through aisles and chapels. 

THE UPPER CALL. 

But the removal of venerated emblems, and the 
disappearance of old systems affected not the Earl. 



124 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

The Cliurcli had loug become to him the auriculum 
of the voices of the upper life, and those voices 
spoke to him in his palace and in the Parliament 
House alike, making all places sacred. He had 
learned to walk after the spirit, without the crutches 
of ritualistic ceremonies, and gained the trans- 
cendent conception of sacrifice, the highest and 
divinest expression of worship. Along a pathway 
of sorrow, moving with manful tread, he had 
reached Beulah heights, and drunk at the crystal 
springs of unadulterated Puritanism. The glitter- 
ing ambitions of wealth and power had given place 
to a sublime vision of other worldliness. In an 
environment of that sickly reign of Euphuism at 
the Court of Elizabeth, the very memory of which 
in after years provoked from Sir Walter Raleigh 
a contemptuous sneer, his enrapt soul had received 
the Spirit of the Son of Man, and standing with his 
feet upon the Shadow of the Cross, he had heard 
Him speak — 

•' Yerily I say unto you, there is no man that hath 
left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or 
mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my sake, 
and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundred- 
fold now in this time, houses and brethren, and 
sisters and mothers, and children and lands with 
persecutions, and in the world to come eternal life." 

Listening to that Yoice he had prayed that he too 
might be permitted to share the Redeemer's burden 
of service. 

The tidings of the black panic of St. Bartholo- 
mew's Eve had roused in his soul a deep solicitude 
for the persecuted Huguenots so sincere and active, 
as to prompt him to declare his determination to 
surrender all his wealth, in the hope of amelio- 
rating their bitter lot, and achieving their de- 



TflE EOYAL EARL. 125 

liverance. It was a mad sclieme, judged by all 
known standards of worldly prudence, mad as all 
Christ's teachings are decreed in common and 
political life, but the upper voices lead men on 
to deeds of madness. The Christly impulse 
generated an inflexible resolution to sell his lordly 
castle and his numerous, manors, and with the pro- 
ceeds to raise and equip an army of sturdy English 
Protestants to invade France, and by force of arms 
to compel the Government of that nation to grant 
religious toleration. 

The scheme overmastered him, dominating all 
his thought, and drew him to London, where he 
poured his amazing project into the Uueen's ear. 

But Elizabeth had never heard the Voices of the 
Upper Life. To her mundane judgment it seemed 
that the project touched the province of Imperial 
statecraft, and she forbade its accomplishment. 

A CONFERENCE OF DIVINES. 

The Earl returned to Ashby-de-la-Zouch dis- 
appointed and sorrowful, and called to his council 
chamber the Puritan Divines of Leicestershire to 
debate the profound question, whether the gracious 
profligacy of his generosity could find no other 
outlet for expenditure. 

It would have been diflicult to have gathered 
together a more resourceful body of councillors in 
such a dilemma. From time immemorial the 
Church, through the agency of its ordained officials, 
has manifested a facile capacity to guide the lay 
mind to the discovery of suitable channels of 
benevolence, and has seldom omitted to emphasize 
the pressing needs of the ecclesiastical order. 
Neither on this occasion did its representatives 
fail to enforce the traditional policy, for under the 



126 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

potent insjDiration of pipes of tobacco and pewters 
of brown October ale, they elaborated a scheme 
calculated to commend itself to the Earl's 
generous piety and at the same time to enhance 
their own material comfort. 

Their suggestion was that he should purchase 
the principal mansion in Leicester town, furnish 
it, provide it with an efficient staff of servants, and 
place its gratuitous hospitality at the service of 
the county clergy of orthodox views. 

The advantages of such a scheme were self- 
commendatory. The mansion would serve as a 
hotel, where the weary country clergyman could 
stable his horse, and find bed and board undisturbed 
by the unwelcome vision of a bill to pay ; it would 
fulfil the conditions of a select social club for town 
members of the spiritual order; it would accom- 
modate distant clergy invited to minister in the 
Leicester pulpits with congenial entertainment; 
and, above all, it would serve as a beacon, from 
which the light of the Reformed Faith would 
radiate through the county. 

It is not surprising that the Royal Earl accepted 
the suggestion, and carried it out with such 
munificence as to command the gratitude even of 
his beneficiaries, who in grateful appreciation gave 
the Mansion the unctious hame " Lord's Place," 
a designation that has clung to it to this day. A 
portion of its wall was until recently to be seen 
embedded in the fabric of a trading house in a busy 
street recalling the memory of a princely bene- 
factor. 

TWO LASTING BENEFACTIONS. 

But while the sustentation of the Lord's Place 
made immense demands upon Lord Huntingdon's 
Exchequer to such an extent, indeed, as to dis- 



THE ROYAL EARL. 127 

organise the family revenue, and lead to the dis- 
posal of a number of manors ; the drain upon his 
resources did not indispose him to extend his 
sjanpathy to other causes. The claims of education 
lay constantly upon the heart of Edward YI ; his 
fame has lingered in history as a genuine patron 
of learning. Indeed, it is remarkable that an 
increased interest in education has always attended 
a wider circulation of the Bible. As the memory 
of the young King is associated with the extension 
of education to the middle classes, so also is it 
clearly recognisable that his surviving friend first 
placed the privilege of a scholastic career, within 
the reach of the sons of the yeomen of his estates, 
within a practicable radius from the Castle. While 
the shelter of the Castle was no longer necessary 
for the protection of the town, the service of the 
Earl, and the maintenance of the fabric, employed 
directly or indirectly, the whole of the able-bodied 
men resident in the town. At this period the 
population of Ashby did not exceed 400. Under 
the influence of the new teaching and in the light 
of his position as a territorial lord, the Earl 
admitted his responsibility for the moral condition 
of his tenantry, and erected and endowed a school 
under his castle walls for the teaching of morals, 
learning, knowledge, and virtue. And so it came 
about that Ashby-de-la-Zouch owes the two 
institutions it prizes most to the liberality of the 
Huntingdons, viz., its church and its school; both 
to this day dependent on the financial supports 
with which the Earls buttressed them, and two 
uninventive centuries have done nothing more than 
trustee their benefactions. 

The mind lingers admiringly in the contempla- 
tion of the sublime character of such a free-handed 



128 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

philanthropist, and defends him from the charge 
of indiscreet and reckless liberality by emphasizing 
the circumstances of his environment. Transfused 
by the Spirit of the Son of Man his mind soared 
into realms of trancendentalism, from which 
mundane considerations failed to divert him. Xo 
son stood by his side to assist him to carry the 
burden of his honours as in the case of former 
Earls; no children's mirthful voices made 
m.elodious the chambers of his Castle ; only the 
Countess and himself sat before the great hearth- 
stone and watched the fire blaze and flicker through 
the long winter nights, recalling reminiscences of 
the past, of their courtship at Edward's Court, of 
the Protector's fall, of Mary's gloomy reign, and 
of the jousts and tournaments and masques with 
which their brother Leicester entertained Eliza- 
beth at his Castle in Keuilworth, her gift to him 
of Love. 

One duty to the companion of his life he left un- 
discharged, to her in her future widowhood a cruel 
inconvenience. He made no will. The omission 
caused endless worry to his successor, who after- 
wards found his sister-in-law, a true daughter of 
the house of Dudley, difficult to satisfy. Even her 
Majesty ultimately deemed it necessary to inter- 
fere in the family dispute, and summon Sir Robert 
Sidney from the Wars in the Netherlands to watch 
his aunt's interests. 

EVEXTIDE. 

The passing of the years had prematurely bent 
the shoulders of the Royal Earl. The preachers 
had often warned him in their discourses that in 
the midst of life we are in death. For him theij* 
platitude became a prophecy. Death struck him 



THE ROYAL EARL. 129 

at the age of 61, after a brief illness, and the same 
week visited his brother George's son, his own heir. 
With a supreme contentment filling his sonl, and 
a halo of peace radiating from his life, he received 
the summons to leave his palace, and enter into the 
place not made with hands. The Queen who, not- 
withstanding self-delusions, was hurrying to the 
same bourne, received the intelligence of his 
decease with a pang of emotion, and ordered his 
funeral rites to be celebrated at St. Helen's Church 
with all the pomp and honours of a state pageant. 
At Ashby-de-la-Zouch and throughout the county 
of Leicester a profound sorrow prevailed. Crowds 
gathered in the town to witness the funeral. Her 
Majesty sent a representative, who came accom- 
panied by a group of eminent personages from 
Court. Amid the benedictions of his tenantry they 
laid the Earl in his last resting place. Ashby-de- 
la-Zouch had never before witnessed so costly or 
impressive a funeral, perhaps never will again, for 
it cost the nation £1,392 12s. The family erected 
no memorial stone, what need of one to perpetuate 
the memory of such a life, lived in response to 
Celestial Voices from the Higher Spheres. But 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch still cherishes the remembrance 
of him, and his royal spirit lingers in the town. 



10 



THE REIGN OF ECONOMY. 
C H AP T E E VI. 

A.D. 1595-1604. 

A DISORDERED ESTATE. 

THE advent of the fourth Earl, George, in- 
augurated a searching inquiry into the 
financial condition of the estates, not a regime 
of parsimony for all we know of the new Earl tends 
to dismiss such a suggestion, but a reign of 
economy, a period in which the head of the family 
took in his own hands the guiding reins. 

The revenue was in a state of complete disorder ; 
Lord's Place made large and continuous demands 
upon it; many hot-headed gospellers of the 
aggressive section of the Puritan party had grown 
accustomed to look to the late Earl for monetary 
support; the territorial possessions of the earldom 
had diminished to the tune of more than seventy 
manors; the difficulties of the Dowager Countess 
rendered an impartial examination of her claims 
essential; and it was fortunate that an economist 
followed a philanthropist. The Earl George, him- 
self a sexagenarian, had not accustomed himself 
to contemplate the probability of a personal suc- 
cession to the title, but rather to regard his eldest 
son Francis as his brother's heir. 



THE REIGN OF ECONOMY. 131 

After his marriage with the daughter and heiress 
of Sir John Port of Etwal, thirty years agone, he 
had settled down at Dale Abbey to the duties of a 
country squire, to rear his three children, and 
settle them in life. But as the years advanced and 
his brother Henry continued to be childless, it 
became apparent that chance might at any time 
exalt him to the headship of the Huntingdon 
family. His double bereavement in 1595 imposed 
the dual responsibility of correcting the effects of 
his late noble brother's reckless generosity and of 
acting jointly with his daughter-in-law as guardian 
of his little grandson Henry, who in the course of 
nature would be called upon during his minority 
to succeed him. 

Undoubtedly if he could have consulted personal 
preferences he would have desired to complete his 
old age in the leisured comfort of his country 
grange. It is not easy at three-score years of age 
to accustom the mind to an enlarged environment 
that affords no increase of personal gratification, 
but demands an additional expenditure of vital 
activity. His portrait in the picture gallery at 
Donnington Park represents him in early middle 
age, as a bro^\Ti muscular man of considerable 
executive forcefulness, a man of monkish type, 
whom we should expect to see command an im- 
portant office in his monastery. 

REFORM. 

And his appearance at Ashby-de-la-Zouch 
effected a radical reform. Whatever may be its 
disadvantages, old-age does reject many of the un- 
profitable ideals of earlier days, and aided by the 
involuntarj'^ cynicism of experience, conserves only 
the things of present value. 



132 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

The extravagant expenditure on preachers im- 
mediately ceased ; Lord's Place assumed the 
semblance of a nobleman's town house ; important 
officials were required to give an account of their 
stewardship ; and Donnington Park was purchased 
from the Earl of Essex to serve as a dower house 
for the family. 

The first three Earls had not only striven to keep 
in touch with the Court, but had given sedulous 
attention to their Parliamentary duties. The 
growing authority of Parliament subsequent to the 
fall of the baronage, and the royal seizure of 
baronial power, had prompted the Commons to 
press their authority into the domain of the royal 
prerogative. Such a state of affairs rendered it 
expedient for Earl George in the first instance, and 
Earl Francis more particularly, to manifest alert- 
ness in the conservation of acquisitions that were 
the direct result of royal favoiir. Since the 
abandonment of his royal claim the third Earl had 
seen no reason why he should continue a political 
career at once distasteful to his inclinations, and 
calculated to expose him to rebuffs at the Queen's 
hands ; and now Earl George, succeeding to the 
title in old age (when ambition does not seek a 
sphere in the angry arena of public affairs), and 
cordially endorsing his brother's action in the 
question of the settlement of the Crown, practically 
abandoned statecraft. 

In doing so he did not in any sense weaken the- 
family influence at Court, but strengthened it. A 
desire to participate in the management of national 
affairs was not the surest passport to James' favour. 
That monarch came to England resolved to main- 
tain existing, and if possible recover abandoned 
prerogatives of the Crown. 



THE REIGN OF ECONOMY. 133 

His slirewd mind instinctively concluded, long 
iDefore he left his Scottish capital, that his rights 
vv'ere not likely to receive injury at the hands of the 
Earl of Huntingdon, while his mercenary nature 
admired the practical common-sense of his aged 
subject, and adjudged him a safe man. 

A STATE CEREMONY. 

But his habitual caution did not fail him in his 
negotiations with the agents of the English Parlia- 
ment in the waning days of Elizabeth, and he 
stipulated that George of Himtingdon, the only 
man who possessed a title to oppose his succession 
outside the Tudor line, should re-affirm his abdi- 
cation of that title. Accordingly by the new King's 
command, immediately after the Queen's death, 
the Earl proceeded to London and proclaimed the 
accession of King James I. at St. James's Palace. 
James had already resolved to cultivate the Earl's 
acquaintance, and during his journey southward 
visited Ashby-de-la-Zouch. In the familiar inter- 
course of guest with host, when even the rigid 
reserve of royalty unbends, he discovered a com- 
munity of sentiment that induced him to extend 
his friendship to Lord Huntingdon, and before the 
Queen commenced her progress he arranged that 
she also should break her journey at the castle to 
share his hospitality, and yet again when he marked 
the stages on the map at which his sickly child 
Prince Charles should rest, when some months 
later he set off from Edinburgh to London, he put 
his cross beside the name of the fortress, that would 
be one of the last to lower the royal flag in the 
coming days of disaster and gloom. During her 
Majesty's visit an unfortunate contretemps 
occurred. She graciously extended her favour to 



134 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

the town of Leicester, where she stayed for four 
days. The dutiful Mayor and Corporation met her 
at the Town Gate, and after presenting her with a 
silver cup, formed into a procession to escort her 
to Sir William Skip worth's house in the Swine- 
market. But the requirements of hospitality over- 
taxed Sir William's linen closet, table service, and 
stable, compelling him to solicit assistance of 
Sir John Harrington, of Elmthorpe. After the 
Queen's departure it was discovered that some dis- 
loyal rascal had taken advantage of the unusual 
bustle to steal a horse, as well as a quantity of 
linen and pewter from Sir William Skipworth's 
mansion. 

SIMPLE TASTES. 

It is probable that the difficulty the Earl ex- 
perienced in accommodating himself to the cere- 
monial etiquette of the castle accounted for the 
purchase of Donnington in 1595, the year he entered 
upon residence at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. He found 
himself unable to lay aside the simple dignity but 
unrestrained freedom of a country squire, or to 
dispense with the rural calm of a less pretentious 
dwelling. 

The delightful seclusion of Donnington Hall, 
with its extensive park of undulating turf land, 
accommodated itself to the habitual love of 
quietude that marks the stages of old age; and 
alternate change of residence prevented monotony. 
Besides, in humouring his own convenience, the 
Earl unconsciously served his future heirs by pro- 
viding another home that should serve them, when 
the grand old Castle had been depleted. 

To the old servants of the Ashby household it was 
a joyful experience to hear again after forty silent 



THE REIGN OF ECONOMY. 135 

years the merry laughter of children. Memory 
recalls a charming mental picture of the old Earl 
and Countess surrounded by their eight grand- 
children. But their especial regard centered in 
the person of the little heir. His father's death in 
1595 had raised him to the heir apparency at 
eleven years of age, while his grandfather's succes- 
sion had conferred upon him the courtesy title Lord 
Hastings. Earl George settled him at Donnington 
Park under his mother's immediate care, from 
whence he could periodically visit the Castle and 
receive with accustomed courtesy the obsequious 
attentions of the household. The Earl was fast 
hurrying to the bourne from which no traveller 
returns, and all eyes turned with interest to the 
young Lord who would soon sit in his chair. 

But one visitor who came occasionally to pay his 
dutiful attentions to the Earl and Countess may 
not be forgotten, because he was a typical English 
gentleman of the seventeenth century, viz., their 
second son Henry Hastings, of the Woodlands, 
Dorsetshire. In later years his contemporary, 
Lord Shaftesbury, drew a vivid pen and ink sketch 
of him that has found its way into the Biographa 
Britannica. Substantially it is as follows: — 

AN ECCENTRIC SQUIRE. 

" In the year 1638 lived Mr. Hastings, by quality 
son, brother, and uncle to Lord Huntingdon. He 
was an original of our age, and a copy of the ancient 
nobility. He was low, very strong, and had 
reddish, flaxen hair. He always wore green clothes, 
never worth £5 when new. He lived in an old- 
fashioned house, in a large park well stocked with 
deer. Near the house were found rabbits for the 
kitchen, fish ponds, woods and timber, a bowling 



136 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

green, kept sport hounds for buck, fox, hare, otter, 
and badger; hawks long and short- winged, and 
nets for fish. He was fond of his neighbour's wives 
and daughters, but very popular, and made his 
neighbours always welcome at his house, where 
plenty of beef, puddings, and small beer were at 
their disposal. The house was very untidy, dirty 
shoes lying about. The great hall was strewn with 
marrow bones, full of hawks, perches, hounds, 
spaniels, and terriers. 

The parlour was a large room, properly furnished, 
and on the great brick-paved hearth spaniels and 
terriers lay. 

Often two of the great chairs had litters of cats 
in them, and three or four attended him at dinner, 
where he had a little white stick of fourteen inches 
long to keep the animals away. 

The windows were large, and had places for 
arrows, cross bows and stone bows, and an oyster 
table stood at the lower end, for he ate oysters for 
dinner and supper every day, the neighbouring 
town of Poole supplying them. The upper part of 
the room had two small tables, and a desk on one 
side, on which was a Bible, and on the other the 
Book of Martyrs. Tables for dice and cards were 
not wanting. Tobacco pipes were stuck in a hole 
in the desk. 

There was a closet on one side of the room. 
Strong beer and wine were kept therein ; Mr. 
Hastings caused the wine to be served in small 
glasses, for he never exceeded in drink, nor per- 
mitted it. On another side of the room was the 
door of an old chapel, not used for devotion, in 
which the pulpit served as a receptacle for a chine 
of beef, venison pasty, a gammon of bacon, an 
apple pie, with thick crust, well baked. His table 



THE REIGN OF ECONOMY. 137 

cost tim not much, tKougli good to eat at. His 
sport supplied all but beef and mutton, except 
Pridays, when he had salt fish, as well as any other 
fish he could obtain. He never wanted a London 
pudding. He drank a glass or two of wine at 
meals, often putting syrup of gilly flowers in his 
sack; and had a glass without feet standing by 
him holding a pint of small beer, which he often 
stirred with rosemnry. 

He was well-natured, but soon angry. He lived 
to be 100 years old, and never lost his eyesight, 
but always wrote and read without spectacles, and 
got on horse back without help. Until past eighty 
years old, he rode to the death of a stag as well as 
any. He died on the 5th day of October, 1650." 

A GOOD STEWARD. 

The old Earl's anxiety about the Huntingdon 
succession led him, with Lady Sarah's co-operation, 
to arrange a matrimonial alliance between his 
youthful heir and the Lady Elizabeth Stanley, 
daughter of the Earl of Derby, and King of Man 
in 1603. The daughter of one of the proudest 
families of England, the Lady Elizabeth, like her 
young husband, boasted a royal lineage, tracing 
her descent from Henry Clifford, Earl of Cumber- 
land, and his w4fe, Eleanor Brandon, the daughter 
of Mary Tudor, and granddaughter of Henry VII. 
Before he had passed out of his tutor's care, as a 
boy bridegroom. Lord Henry married his girl- 
bride, and the marriage proved an union of hearts 
as well as hands, for during thirty years of 
unbroken happiness, the noble couple lived together 
in Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle, lovers to the end. 
Lady Elizabeth did not live to see the cruel war, 
but her brother, the Earl of Derby, did, and lost 



138 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

his head for liis loyalty to the King, whilst his. 
proud French dame rendered her name famous for 
all coming centuries as the heroine of Lathom 
House. A full-length portrait of the Lady 
Elizabeth on an expansive canvas, and with a land- 
scape background, hangs on the wall of the dining- 
room at Donnington Hall, and the visitor lingers 
beside it with interest, because its great charm is 
its sweet naturalness. 

The royal lady has disregarded the toilet of Court 
fashion, and the arts of the coquette, and chosen to 
be painted as a child of Js'ature, in homely attire, 
and amid the flowers. Not a Court beauty looks 
down from the canvas, but a sweet and girlish 
woman. 

But just when the compass of his years had 
spanned the Psalmist's allotted period of life the 
Angel of Death bade the Earl close the ledgers of 
his stewardship. He had added nothing to the 
family renown, either in statesmanship or in war- 
fare. Competent men of his type rarely achieve 
distinction, they are content to complete their task ; 
but his nine years of reformative administration 
had effected a wonderful improvement at Ashby- 
de-la-Zouch, and prepared the way for the coming 
golden age. Efficiency had become the motto in 
the household and on the estates, and everywhere 
order reigned. 

The Castle was in a state of excellent repair; 
the pleasaunce and the parks evidenced horticul- 
tural attention ; and by the Earl's generous assist- 
ance his young relative, the Rev. Arthur Hilder- 
sham, had been enabled to give efficient attention 
to the fabric and clerical staff of St. Helen's Church. 
A sense of restfulness creeps over the mind as it 
recalls the memory of the old Earl, the personal 



THE REIGX OF ECONOMY. 139 

friend of King James I., who was brave enoiigli to 
stem the flood of an enthusiastic' s extravagance 
and restore order where confusion had reigned for 
many years. He was called to the accomplish- 
ment of an unwelcome task, and he proved himself 
capable, and when he died, on the 31st of December, 
the Yicar's careful hand recorded the melancholy 
event in the parish register, a more imperishable 
memorial than marble slabs or polished brasses. 



THE GOLDEN AGE. 
CHAPTER YII. 

A.D. 1586—1643. 

THE year following his marriage Lord Henry 
became Earl, at the age of 19. His succes- 
sion may be said to have inaugurated the Golden 
Age of Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle. 

The economies of Earl George had made possible 
the splendid hospitality about to be extended to 
the first two Stuart Kings. There is no record of 
Yorkist or Tudor Kings visiting the Castle, but 
from the accession of James L to the fatal evening 
of Naseby fight, royal guests frequently accepted 
bed and board at Ashby, and came attended by 
numerous suites. To accommodate his visitors the 
Earl found it necessary to add a number of apart- 
ments, building them on the site of the present 
Manor House. 

Yanity of vanities ; all is vanity had been the 
dying thought of Earl Francis ; the giddy steeps of 
ambition and the absorbing interests of wealth are 
vanity. Only the sweet love of the home circle, the 
delicious tenderness of wife and child, of all our 
mundane treasures can content the weary heart. 

HOME AND ALTAR. 

The young Earl and Countess, wise in the fervour 
of their young love, made Ashby-de-la-Zouch 



THE GOLDEN AGE. 141 

Castle a home, and in that home erected an altar 
to their God. 

One of the stately homes of Stuart England the 
Castle truly became. Earl George had left every 
department of the household in decorous order, 
though contracted to suit his quiet mode of life; 
Earl Henry augmented the household to meet the 
convenience of a yoang and royal pair, who desired 
to surround themselves with the seemly ceremonial 
that accorded with their rank, until the number 
who regularly dined and supped at the Castle, 
exclusive of guests and strangers, told sixty-eight. 
The rules laid down in the household book supply 
us with a graphic word picture of a regulated and 
ceremonious daily routine. 

THE HOUSEHOLD. 

The Steward of the Household held supreme 
authority in the Castle, assisted by his immediate 
subordinate, the Gentleman Usher. A Gentleman 
of the Horse controlled the Stables, and a Clerk of 
the Kitchen the Culinary Department. The Clerk 
of the Kitchen held the chief cook responsible for 
the excellence of the cuisine. The table arrange- 
ments fell to the care of the Usher of the Household, 
and the Almoner looked to the disposal of the 
broken viands, for the service of the servants, and 
afterwards for distribution amongst the needy poor, 
who clustered daily about the Great Gateway. 
Other important officers were the yeomen of the 
pantry, the buttery, the wardrobe, and the granary, 
as well as the porter, the baker, and the brewer. 

The Earl allowed an approximate amount of 
money for each department, and each head of a 
department was expected to keep his expenses 
within bounds. The annual beef bill amounted to 
£190, mutton £200, salt fish £70, hops and vinegar- 



142 ROMAXCE OF A.^HBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

£30, wine £80, grocery £140, sweetmeats £20, coal 
£80, linen £51, wages £140, footmen's coats £20, 
pages' coats £50, repairs £200, saddlery £205, 
hawkes and hounds £40. for mv Lord's apparel 
£200, for my Lady's £200, for the children's £60. 
This list does not include venison from the parks 
and woods, game from the preserves, and fresh fish 
from the neighbouring rivers and ponds, together 
with the large quantities of comestible products 
that the widespreading estates of the Earldom 
might be depended upon to yield for the mainten- 
ance of the Castle's food supply. The household 
book estimates the annual cost of maintenance at 
£2,853 13s. 4d., and if we multiply that sum by 
nine, or possibly by ten, we are able to estimate the 
purchase power of such a sum in modern times. 
The book fixes the meal hours as follows : — Break- 
fast at 8 a.m., dinner 11 a.m., beaver 3 p.m., and 
lyverye at 8 p.m., and the duties of the separate 
officials are specified. The active functionary was 
the Gentleman Usher. Before a meal was served 
it was his duty to visit the porter at the Great Gate- 
way and satisfy himself that all loiterers had been 
ordered away, and the gates closed. That done, 
his mode of procedure was as under : — 

The Gentleman TTsher, as soon as their honours' 
meals are laid in the great hall, do see the board 
laid in the hall, and a basin and ewer for the 
steward's table every Sabbath, or when strangers 
are present. 

That he do walk bareheaded up and down and 
see all ready, and remain till meals are over. 

Upon the server's appearance, he goes to the 
dresser, at the upper end of the room, and calls 
with a loud voice, '' Gentlemen and Yeomen, wait 
on the Server." 



THE GOLDEN AGE. 143 

That upon the appearance of their honours' meat, 
he calls, " By your leave," and come to the other 
end of the room, bareheaded, whilst the meat is 
handed to them. 

That when their honours' meat is served up to 
the chamber, and the gentlewomen's, that he call 
with a loud voice, saying, '' Gentlemen server to the 
dresser, and come himself with the steward's mess, 
and that when there are strangers he call the 
grooms of the stable to wait in the hall, and if any 
refuse, give notice to the head officers. 

That he cause every man in the hall to be bare- 
headed while their honours' second meal of fruit 
pass through. 

That he suffer no supper in the hall upon fasting 
nights. 

That the yeoman chip the bread orderly, without 
waste, and that he serve all the tables in the hall 
with stale bread. 

When the meal was finished the Almoner carried 
the broken viands to the Great Gateway for distri- 
bution amongst the poor of Ashby and any passing 
vagabonds who waited there. 

THE PORTER. 

The Porter of the Gateway was an official alto- 
gether too important to be overlooked. He sat 
daily in the gateway clad in gorgeous livery, and 
holding his staff of office in his hand. Every 
member of the household understood the expe- 
diency of keeping on pleasant terms with him, as 
did the daily pensioners who frequented the gate- 
way. It was woe to the saucy maid, or insolent 
groom, who tarried over long in the town, and 
reached the Castle after the closing of the gates if 
they had incurred the porter's ill-will. 



144 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

The duties of the autocrat of the Great Gateway 
are clearly laid down in the book of the household 
rules : — 

That the Porter sit not at the gate without his 
staff. 

That the gates are shut, and no man enter during 
dinner. 

That he suffer no rogues, vagabonds, or diseased 
persons to linger about the gates. 

That he shut the gate at 9 p.m. winter and 10 p.m. 
summer, and open not again till 6 a.m. winter, and 
5 a.m. summer. 

REV. ARTHUR HILDERSHAM. 

But while the young Earl maintained discipline 
and morality in his lordly palace, the Vicar of 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, as Chaplain of the Household, 
ministered at the family altar. He owed his position 
primarily to his membership of the Pole family, 
a connection that rendered him a personce gratoe at 
the Castle. It is notable how many of the Poles 
forsook the ancient faith so dear to the Great 
Cardinal, and adopted Protestant views, in the face 
of bitter persecution. In Arthur Hilder sham's 
youth, immediately after he left the University, 
his parents desired him to accept the appointment 
of Catholic Lecturer at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, for 
even after Earl Francis's rupture with the old 
religion many families in and around the town 
remained faithful, but for conscience sake he could 
not consent. In consequence, his parents disin- 
herited and discarded him, and in his desolate con- 
dition the Royal Earl not only succoured and 
protected him, but ultimately advanced him to the 
vicarage of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Installed in that 
post, he manifested a cultured grasp of Bible inter- 



THE GOLDEN AGE. 145 

pretation, and an independence of thonglit and 
speech that involved him in a long trial in the High 
Court of Commission. Through the interminable 
proceedings of that Court, however, the Royal Earl 
watched over his personal safety, and when he was 
silenced, still welcomed him back to the Castle. 
During Earl George's time he suffered no molesta- 
tion, but the fifth Earl protected him against two 
episcopal prosecutions, and in the local Ecclesiasti- 
cal Court of Leicester. Four times Puritan courts 
silenced him, and four times the Earl of Hunting- 
don's influence restored him to his pulpit. He 
suffered fines (which the Earl paid), excommunica- 
tion and imprisonment for conscience sake, but all 
the thunders of the Church failed to destroy his 
unorthodox zeal. 

He refused to wear a gown in his pulpit, to make 
the sign of the cross in baptism, and to kneel at 
Sacrament. These objections were but the outward 
sign of an indwelling light too bright for the narrow 
spirit of his time. In the furnace of persecution 
he had looked upon the face of the Son of God, and 
had come to regard ceremonial rites and priestly 
pretentions as noxious creepers round the true vine. 
His spiritual nature absorbed the thought of the 
Apocalypse, of a city of God, where there is no 
temple or priest, or sacrifice, as the consummation 
of earthly worship, and he openly taught his flock 
to look backward to the first century of the Chris- 
tian Era for its ideal of Church life. For forty- 
three years the indomitable divine ministered to the 
town and Castle household in holy things, making 
his influence felt in the social life of the whole 
county. During the long period of his vicariate he 
ministered to three Earls in four different reigns, 
but it was chiefly in the last quarter of a century 
11 



146 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 



of Ms life that lie unfolded to his congregation his 
rich stores of thought. In 1610 he delivered from 
his pulpit in St. Helen's Church a course of 100 
lectures on the fourth chapter of St. John, and 
fourteen years later he commenced a series of 152 
lectures on the 51st Psalm. Week by week the 
Earl and Countess sat under his ministry in the 
Huntingdon pew. 

In his Church History, Fuller gives a succinct 
and interesting account of him. 

" This year (1632) ended the days of Mr. Arthur 
Hildersham, born at Shekworth, bred in Christ 
Church, in the University of Cambridge, whose 
education was an experimental comment on the 
words of David, ' When my father and my mother 
forsake me, then the Lord taketh me up.' " 

My Father Thomas Hildersham, a gentleman of 
an ancient family. 

My Mother Anne Poole, daughter of Sir Geoffrey 
and niece of Cardinal Poole, and 
grandchild of Sir Ptichard Poole, 
and Margaret, Countess of Salis- 
bury, who was daughter of George 
Duke of Clarence. 

Forsake me Quite cast him off because he would 

not be bred a Papist and go to 

Eome. 

then An emphatical monosyllable just in 

that nick of time. 

The Lord Not immediately (miracles being 

taketh me ceased), but in and by the hands 

up. of Henry, Earl of Huntingdon (his 

honourable kinsman), providing 
plentiful maintenance for him. 



THE GOLDEN AGE. 147 

However, after lie was entered in tlie ministry 
he met with many molestations, as hereby doth 
appear : — 

(The High Commission Court, June 1590. 
Bishop 'Chadderton, April 24th, 1605. 
Bishop Neile, November, 1611. 
The Court at Leicester, March 4th, 1630. 
The Court of High Commission, January 
1591. 

{Bishop Barlow, January, 1608. 
Doctor Eidley, June 20th, 1625. 
The Leicester Court, August 2nd, 1631. 

And now methinks I hear the spirit speaking unto 
him, as once to the prophet Ezekiel, " Thou shalt 
speak and be no more dumb, singing now with 
the Celestial Quire of Saints and Angels." In- 
deed, though himself a Nonconformist, he loved 
all honest men, were they of a different judgment, 
minded like Luther herein, who gave his motto, 
" In quo aliquid Christ! video ilium diligo." 

A NOBLE COUPLE. 

In their beautiful home, and under the spell of 
Arthur Hildersham's influence, the young Earl 
and Countess lived their idyllic lives in the 
cadences of holy wedlock. Never before had a Lord 
and Lady of Ashby-de-la-Zouch blended their tastes 
and affection into so perfect an union. In 1606 
they made preparations to receive their mother, 
the Dowager Countess of Derby, deciding upon 
a masque as an appropriate tribute of honour with 
which to mark the close of her visit. The memory 
of the gorgeous pageantries that had enlivened 
the festivities at Kenilworth during the late 
Queen's visit to the Earl of Leicester, still lingered 



148 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

in the minds of the members of the household. The 
Earl commissioned '^ John Marston, the poet," to 
compose the masque, which he described as " ye 
lorde and ladye of Huntingdon's entertainment to 
their right noble mother, Alice Countess Dowager 
of Derby/' For weeks before her arrival in 
August skilled artists laboured to produce floral 
and scenic effects, and convert the little park and 
the pleasaunce into an arcadia, and rehearsals were 
held. The Earl intended the masque to be the 
close of a long series of revels, and designed that 
as her ladyship of Derby rode through the little 
park at her departure from the Castle, a shep- 
herdess should sing a passionate lay, and a Niobe 
present her with a casket. 

A BABY HEIR. 

A year and a half later, an event happened of 
unusual interest to the household. In January, 
1608, the Countess gave birth to an heir to the 
Huntingdon titles and estates, who received at the 
baptismal font of St. Helen's Church the favourite 
Derby name of Ferdinando. The unconscious babe, 
the object of so much congratulation, was destined 
by fate to an inglorious future. Called to the Long 
Parliament as Lord Hastings, he departed tem- 
porarily from the traditional policy of his house, by 
coquetting with the leaders of the Hevolutionary 
Party, and accepting military service against the 
King. Clarendon tells the story how "the Lords 
sat in their Chamber at Westminster on the morrow 
of the fight at Edge Hill, listening to the reading 
of a despatch from Essex. While they were 
greedily digesting the news the Lord Hastings, who 
had a command of Horse in the Service, entered 
the House with a frightened and ghastly look, and 



THE GOLDEN AGE. 149 

positively declared all to be lost, whatsoever they 
believed or flattered themselves with, and though 
it was evident enough, that he had run away from, 
the beginning and lost his way thither, most men 
looked upon him as the lost messenger, and even 
shut their ears against anj possible comfort, as that 
without doubt very many in the horror and con- 
sternation of 48 hours, paid and underwent a full 
penance and mortification for the hopes and in- 
solence of three months before." 

After his premature flight from Edge Hill Lord 
Ferdinando took no further part m the civil war. 

"An Angel came 

And whipped the oflFending Adam out of hira." 

With the whole weight of the family interest on 
the King's side he considered that the position of 
isolation in which a continued alliance with the 
rebel leaders would have placed him, would be 
painful beyond endurance. He accordingly retired 
from the conflict, but though he became Earl in 
1643 he failed to obtain possession of Ashby-de-la- 
Zouch Castle until his brother Henry surrendered 
it to Colonel Needham, and even then only obtained 
a nominal admission of his ownership. 

THE PLAGUE. 

In 1607 the plague raged in Leicester town, and 
a number of residents died. The Corporation made 
efforts characteristic of the period to assuage the 
visitation. According to the accounts for the year 
of the Chamberlain of the borough, they engaged 
a nurse to visit the sick and search the dead, and 
even despatched a messenger on horseback to " one 
Mr. Willy am Motte, a fizition of Bourne in Lin- 
colnshire, to request him to come over to Leicester 
to the visited people to helpe to cure them." On 



150 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

reaclimg Bourne tlie messenger ascertained that 
the doctor had been called by professional duties 
to Uppingham, and followed him there, but there 
is no evidence that Mr. Motte visited Leicester. 
Until June, 1610, the scourge lingered inter- 
mittently in the town, yet not with sufficient 
virulence to cause any immediate anxiety in the 
county. 

A LOVE LETTER. 

In the early spring of ICIO the Countess of 
Huntingdon passed through Leicester, unaccom- 
panied by her lord, and wrote him one of the 
sweetest letters surely any wife ever penned to a 
lover husband. It breathes the spirit of a perfect 
companionship : — 

" Dear Sweet harte, — I prayse God wee came 
very well hither, and about four o'clock. The 
waters were deepe and not passable by Bellgrave, 
wherefore Mr. Rydeings guided us another way 
over St. Sunday's Bridge. Your much love and 
care of me makes me trouble you with mv 
passage hither. God willing, I will be in ye 
coach to-morrow by seven o'clock, for 'tis a longe 
journey. Your mares go very well, and the 
chariot mare I will send back as you appointed. 
I will from hence write to my Lorde Graye, of 
Bradgate, your excuse and mine own. My lorde 
is gone to my Lorde Sherwood's, but his eldest 
son fell sick, and stayed my Layde's journey. 
News I know none. Mr. Rydyngs will wait on 
you. Badger purposed before I came to come 
to Donnington to-morrow or next day, and I wish 
you any company till I come to fill up and supply 
their rooms. I beseech God send you health, 
and send us a happy meeting. Indeed, I shall 



THE GOLDEN AGE. 



151 



wish myselfe with yon much sooner than I can 
come ; and to hasten my coming I will lose no 
time. I will make it many clayes sooner down, 
rather than stay© should the weather be ill, after 
I have done my business, and I hope in God I 
shall be sooner back than you expect me, and as 
longe as I have life, I will praye for yours, and 
ever rest. 

" Your most affectionate wife till death, 

" Elizabeth Huntingdon." 

" Leicester, Tuesday night." 

"As soon as I have supped, God willing, I will 
to bed, and wish you there, and in your own 
bed again, and with as much ease as I used to 
walk between my little cabin and yours." 

henry's birth. 
When the June roses were blooming the same 
year, the plague broke out in Leicester with such 
fury as to alarm the gentry throughout the county. 
The efforts of the authorities to battle with it 
proved unavailing. They relied upon medical 
science, and the doctors of the period were mere 
quacks and charlatans. No conception of sanitary 
science dawned upon their minds. The dreadful 
epidemic raged for nearly twelve months, desolat- 
ing hundreds of homes and filling the streets with 
mourners. The townspeople distinguished this 
visitation from all previous ones by describing it 
as the Great Plague. The sickness dispersed into 
several parts of the to^vn, and six different levies 
were made upon the inhabitants of the best sort to 
relieve the destitution. At length the burden upon 
the town's resources became too heavy to bear, and 



152 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

the distressed Mayor appealed to tlie Earl to initiate 
a County Relief Fund, to which his lordship 
assented. 

Meanwhile he hurried the Countess off to Lough- 
borough, that she might be safe from infection, 
amid the bracing breezes of Charnwood Forest. At 
the Manor House there, on the 28th of September, 
1610, according to Fletcher's '^ Eoyal Peerage of 
Leicestershire," she gave birth to a second son, the 
intrepid Henry Hastings, who was decreed to recall 
the memory of the founder, and in the gloaming of 
the day of chivalry in England at Edge Hill, at 
Hopton Heath, at Newark, and at Lichfield, and on 
many fields of less repute, to fight bravely for his 
King. The parish register at Loughborough does 
not record either the birth or baptism, but the 
old town has cause to be proud of its brave son, as he 
was ever proud of his birthplace. When King 
Charles conferred upon him a patent of nobility 
he chose to be kno^vn as Lord Loughborough, and 
at the restoration, when he settled down in London, 
he named his mansion Loughboro' House. 
Although his infant eyes were not to fi.rst see the 
light in the ancestral fortress, which will be ever- 
more associated with his name, it was there that he 
spent his days of childhood. No mansion in the 
wide domain of England could have supplied a 
fitter nursery for the future cavalier than the 
Castle of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, with its indelible 
traditions reaching backward into mediaeval times. 

CARE FOR ASHBY. 

Probably within a month after his birth, the 
little Henry with his mother arrived at Ashby-de- 
la-Zouch, for we find the Earl manifesting an active 
solicitude for the safety of the town from infection. 



THE GOLDEN AGE. 153 

He instructed liis private secretary to write to " tlie 
right worshipful Mr. Maior of Leicester " as 
follows : — 

" Good Mr. Maior, — It is my Lord's pleasure 
that none of your towne of Leicester should 
repeare to the ffayre of Asheby. And accordingly 
his lordship would entreat you that it may be 
made knowen unto them all that intend it, so 
farre as you can learne. 

'' His lordship living heare is carefull for the 
preservation of his towne, and doeth not only 
deale soe with Leicester, but with all others 
infected. And soe taking my leave I rest. 

"Ashby, this 26th day of October, 1610. 

'' Your vearj^ loveinge friend, 

'' John Burrowes.'' 

In Henry's fifth year King James visited Ashby- 
de-la-Zouch, staying some days. It was the 
memorable occasion when he released the witches 
in Leicester gaol. 

henry's monitors. 

Outside the immediate guardianship of the Earl 
and Countess, the person who most influentially 
contributed to the formation of Henry's character 
was the Rev. Arthur Hildersham, his minister and 
probably his tutor. When but eleven years old the 
boy sat with his parents in the family pew of St. 
Helen's Church, clad in velvet and lace, listening 
to the opening lectures of the long series of 152 
expositions of the 51st Psalm. Undoubtedly the 
spell of the noble divine bound the mind and spirit 
of the future cavalier throughout his life. The 
beautiful ministry that sustained the devotional 



154 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

instincts of tlie royal Earl ; that won the confidence 
of the unemotional Earl George ; and that 
spiritualised the lives of the Golden Earl and his 
gracious Countess, left its impress on the 
character of Henry Hastings. His correspondence 
breathes the spirit of the reverent Christian, and 
throughout the course of the cruel war, no charge of 
cruelty was ever associated with his name. 
Attempts were made by bigoted sectaries of the 
Protestant party, at the outbreak of the war, to 
damage his authority and frustrate his plans, by 
branding him a Papist. It is true that Papists 
enrolled themselves in his forces, but to his un- 
biassed judgment they were equally subjects of the 
King with the Protestants, and consequently com- 
petent to take up arms in defence of the monarchy, 
and the associations of the Hildersham ministry, 
then barely closed ten years, helped the conviction 
of his Leicester hearers when he publicly denied 
such an insinuation. 

But if the Rector of Ashby-de-la-Zouch moulded 
his moral character and fashioned his religious 
belief, his great uncle, the eccentric Henry 
Hastings, furnished his model of an ardent sports- 
man. The service of the Castle supplied him with 
every facility for indulgence in manly field sports. 
No falcon house in merry England could boast of 
choicer birds, for it drew its supplies from the 
aviaries of the Isle of Man. 

AN OLD-TIME SPORTSMAN. 

The Earls of Derby held the sovereignty of man 
under a yearly tribute to the King of England of 
a brace of falcons. Besides, he lived in an age 
when sporting propensities were as yet unchecked 
by those finer susceptibilities that now condemn 



THE GOLDEN AGE. 



155 



the pleasures that involve animal suffering. Even 
the sedate and godly puritan did not discoun- 
tenance a bull or bear baiting scene on Ashby 
Green, or decline to witness a spirited fight between 
two game birds in a private cock-pit. 

Seventeenth century gentlemen took great 
delight in aquatic sports, and a wide area 
round the Castle, the Soar, the Derwent, and the 
noble Trent, as well as the numerous brooks, un- 
contaminated by the refuse of factories, afforded 
the angler and the fisherman opportunity to in- 
dulge in the meditative art, while the abundance 
of otters and badgers opened to sportsmen of 
hardier habits a fiercer pastime. 

But it was on the hunting field that Henry 
Hastings acquired that superb horsemanship that 
served him in good stead in after years. Following 
the hounds he obtained a marvellous knowledge 
of the topography of the Midlands, that enabled 
him to manoeuvre bodies of troops with ease and 
safety. His sporting proclivities brought him into 
close touch with the minor gentry and yeomen of 
half-a-dozen counties, familiarising him with their 
political bias, their religious convictions, and the 
measure of their independence. The occupants of 
the principal mansions, and the numerous farm- 
houses were well-known to him as well as the by- 
lanes, the bridle paths, and the bridges. 

His charming affability and his fearless horse- 
manship won for him a widespread popularity, and 
rendered him the most popular young man in the 
county of Leicester. The tradesmen of Ashby, 
Loughborough, and Leicester esteemed him and 
deferred to him, while at whatever homestead he 
ventured to call, on the return journeys of his long 
hunting excursions, in quest of hospitality, the 



156 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

hostess, be she squire's lady or yeoman's wife, 
received him with her sunniest smile. 

A PORTRAIT. 

Two interesting portraits of him hang in the 
dining room of Donnington Hall, one painted in 
1628, and the other in 1642. The earlier picture 
represents him in his eighteenth year as a gallant 
youth of the Rupert type. The characteristic 
Huntingdon features, the long nose, straight firm 
mouth and finely chiseled contour dominate the 
face. The eyes are large and grey, and his long 
auburn hair flows over a costly collar of lace, while 
the whole face is expressive of frankness and fear- 
lessness. 

BEREAVED. 

Two years after he attained his majority, the 
supreme sorrow of his life visited him, for in 
January, 1633, the broken-hearted Earl stood 
between his two sons, beside the open grave of his 
beloved Countess in the Church of St. Helen's. 
Ere her fiftieth year, the irrevocable fiat had 
broken the winsome union of nearly thirty years' 
duration. No more her light feet were to hurry 
from her little cabin in the old Castle to the Earl's 
chamber ; no more was her boudoir to be the fond 
resort of the Earl and his two sons; no longer 
would her sweet presence diffuse through the grim 
fortress, the delicious fragrance of homeliness. 

Through the January snows they carried her over 
the grassy knoll to St. Helen's Church, her 
husband and sons following bare-headed. And at 
the churchyard gate a new clergyman met them 
with words of hope. The familiar voice of their old 



THE GOLDEX AGE. 157 

miuister, Mr. Hildersham, could no longer soothe 
their grief, for he, too, lay sleeping in the same 
consecrated ground. 

A ROYAL VISIT. 

The following year, in 1634, King Charles and 
Queen Marie Henrietta visited the C;jstle in State. 

No maiden's voice had yet awakened melody in 
the lone chamber of Henry's heart, but the stately 
King and his bewitching consort filled the void with 
new interests and new ambitions. It is not diffi- 
cult to imagine the emotions that Charles' per- 
sonality kindled in the young aristocrat's mind, 
prepared as it had been by the educative influence 
of an inheritance of two centuries of ancestral loyal 
traditions for the impression. His Majesty was as 
yet in the zenith of his reign. Even to-day we 
cannot deny his kingly attributes. After all has 
been said that bigotry and malice have devised to 
asperse his name and fame, after an impatient dis- 
missal of the adulation of immediate restoration 
days, in our calmer judgment his memory appeals 
to us to remember him as a sovereign who lived a 
clean life, loving his wife and children with 
intense devotion ; as the patron of Inago Jones, of 
Rembrandt and of Yan Dyck, and the friend of 
art and literature. It is significant that in the 
supreme moments of human life, when symptoms 
of weakness are not unusual even with the strongest, 
he maintained the calm dignity of kingliness. In 
the dejection of flight, and when a hunted fugitive 
sitting awhile upon some grassy knoll to munch a 
crust; or when bearding the cold reserve of his 
judges; or on the scaffold before his palace of 
Whitehall, he was always the King. 



158 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

In the banqueting chamber of Ashby-de-la- 
Zouch. Castle, and tkroughout tlie fulsome cere- 
monials of the Royal visit to Leicester, Henry 
Hastings remained in close attendance. The 
Queen made him her willing captive, and his 
enthusiasm in her cause henceforward became a 
controlling motive of his future career. During 
her triumphal march in 1643 from York to Edge 
Hill, no cavalier of all the joyful body guard that 
surrounded her contributed so largely to the suc- 
cessful accomplishment of her design, as her knight 
of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. King Charles did not fail 
to estimate the worth of his young subject. It is 
probable that Hastings followed him to Court, as 
was the habit of scions of his house, for during the 
gloomy days of the spring of 1642 he was near the 
royal person. On the eve of the Civil War his 
Majesty personally addressed the Commission of 
Array for Leicestershire to him, and commanded 
him to carry that momentous document to Ashby- 
de-la-Zouch and act upon it. 



THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

1642. 

ON his departure from London in tlie spring of 
1642, the King relied for sympathy and 
support upon the loyalty of the Lord of Ashby-de- 
la-Zouch, but was equally conscious of the enmity 
of the Bradgate family. The long-standing feud 
between the houses of Huntingdon and Bradgate 
had stirred the deep-seated prejudices of the 
country people, and prepared many of them to take 
part in the impending struggle. 

LORD STAMFORD. 

Lord Stamford's territorial power lay chiefly 
in Lincolnshire, around the town from which he 
derived his title. His Leicestershire estate, how- 
ever, surrounding Bradgate, and stretching beyond 
Copt Oak, was sufficiently extensive to qualify him 
for the lord-lieutenancy of the county, to which he 
had been appointed in February, in succession to 
Lord Ferdinando Hastings. Like that young 
nobleman, he could trace his descent from Mary 
Tudor, the daughter of Henry VII. His past 
career had not commended him to Charles' favour. 



160 llOMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

In June, 1639, while attending tlie King at Ber- 
wick, Jie visited the Scottish camp and accepted 
Leslie's hospitality. On his return he loudly ex- 
tolled Scottish loyalty to his master, but Charles 
chillingly replied : — 

'' You have done them too much honour to go, 
my lord." 

Sinister and mercenary, he lacked those personal 
graces that are essential to a leader of men. His 
haughty and arrogant demeanour had alienated the 
country gentry; while his cynical hostility to the 
Church had awakened strong resentment in the 
hearts of the local clergy. The cavaliers during 
the course of the war accused him of living a 
dissolute life, and of spending the plunder of Here- 
ford in profligacy; lampooning him in satirical 
songs until the Parliamentarians themselves sus- 
pected his honesty. Failure dogged his steps. He 
conducted himself with unsoldierly incapacity and 
cowardice at Stratton in Cornwall, where he en- 
trusted the command of his troops to General 
Chudleigh, remaining outside the zone of danger 
during the battle, and fleeing for his life im- 
mediately the fortunes of the day favoured the 
Royalists. He incurred the censure of Par- 
liament for the surrender of Exeter, and the 
anxiety he manifested to insure his personal 
safety in the terms of capitulation, while his abject 
letter to the King provoked royal contempt. 

LOUD GREY OF GROBY. 

He had little in common with his son and heir, 
Lord Grey of Groby, a youth of nineteen years of 
age, whom Mrs. Hutchinson describes as a young 
man of no eminent parts, but backed by the 
authority of Parliament, and the Parliamentary 



THE COMMISSION OF AERAY. 161 

records distinguish as a lord dear to the Commons. 
A dreamy religious fanatic, he sat in the Lower 
House as member for Leicester, taking a bold part 
in the proceedings of the Long Parliament. He 
stood by Colonel Pride's side when he purged that 
assembly, as Carlyle relates, *' and as this member 
or that comes up, whispers or beckons ' He is one 
of them; he cannot enter.' " He sat as a judge at 
the King's trial, and afterwards signed the warrant 
for his execution. His religious fanaticism carried 
him into the counsels of the Fifth Monarchy Move- 
ment, and led to his imprisonment at Windsor, 
where he languished a martyr to gout for four 
months, until Cromwell's clemency released him. 
Along the troubled pathway of his life the Earl 
refused to accompany him ; not understanding his 
temperament or his ideals. Thorsby, the historian, 
has recorded with pardonable pride a story of an 
ancestor, Thomas Thorsby, of Ansty. He tells us, 
" that when grey with years, on hearing of the 
disaster of the Royal troops at Naseby, that yeoman 
voluntarily drove his team to Leicester to assist the 
Cavaliers' flight." 

Later he happened to be at Bradgate, when Lord 
Grey brought his father the intelligence of the 
sovereign's execution, 

" Well, Thomas," said the Earl, " King or no 
King." 

" No King, my lord." 

" Then no Lord Grey," the Earl retorted, and 
abruptly turning his back upon his son, left him. 

Stamford's mission. 

But notwithstanding his personal unpopularity. 
Lord Stamford in the early portion of 1642 wielded 
a strong political power in Leicestershire. The 
12 



162 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

supporters of Parliament deferred to him on 
account of his social rank, regarding him as a 
fearless exponent of their cherished aspirations, 
while Parliament itself believed him to be a 
heaven-sent leader. To strengthen his hands he 
had been apj^ointed lord-lieutenant. It had been 
wiser to have left him to the more suitable occu- 
pation of devising a better method of dressing flax, 
and managing his farms, for nature had endowed 
him with a talent for agricultural pursuits and 
designed other men of humbler social position, but 
manlier instincts, to formulate a revolutionary 
policy, and lead armies in the field. 

On the 4th of June, 1642, Stamford arrived in 
Leicester from London armed with a commission of 
Parliament to put in force the Ordinance of Militia. 
His instructions authorised him to seize the town 
magazine, without attracting public attention, and 
retain it under his own control. The local train 
bands were known to be in sympathy with the 
Parliamentary cause, being drawn mainly from the 
houses of burgesses of Leicester and the disaffected 
families of the smaller towns. 

Provided that their equipment could be insured, 
the Parliamentary leaders flattered themselves that 
their hold on the county would be complete. 
Opposition would undoubtedly be offered by the 
Huntingdon family, but the scarcity of arms and 
ammunition would restrict their measures. The 
residences of the country gentry contained but 
meagre stores of weapons, which were chiefly relics 
of past days, antiquated armour and arms, dating 
back to the period of the Wars of the Roses, and 
of little use except for wall decorations. Even 
money seemed powerless to assist the Royalists, 
for the citizens of Birmingham declined to supply 



THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 163 

them from their forges, and the armourers' shops 
of London were watched by Parliamentary agents. 
Besides, disloyalty had found its way into Ashby- 
de-la-Zouch Castle. 

Lord Ferdinando had been drawn into the 
councils of the Revolutionists, but had given them 
his hand, and not his heart. 

By the unwilling consent of the Mayor, and the 
co-operation of the Corporation and burgesses, 
Stamford quickly removed the greater portion of 
the magazine to Bradgate. He next, in consent 
with the High Sheriif, Archdale Palmer, issued an 
order for the assembling of the train bands at 
Leicester on Wednesday, June 8th, a step that 
brought Henrv Hastings on the scene. 

HASTINGS' OPPOSITION. 

The later portrait in Donnington Park is 
interesting, because it portrays him at this 
anxious period of his career. Dressed in a rich 
black lace cape reaching to his waist, with a throat 
bow of white lace, like ladies wear, he looks down 
from the canvas with a sad and worried expression. 
It is the face and head of an idealist, and on 
enthusiast; but it is chiefly the painful solicitude, 
cleverly depicted by the artist, that arrests atten- 
tion. Looking upon his sensitive face the student 
doubts not, that in unsheathing his sword for the 
King, he fully realised the burden of pain that his 
decision would lay upon his shoulders. 

Riding out to Leicester from Ashby-de-la-Zouch 
Castle, he put up at his favourite inn the " Angel," 
and despatched a messenger to the Mayor, bidding 
him meet him there. The ensuing conference 
between the Cavalier and the Mayor resulted in the 
squashing of the order for the assembly of the train 



164 ROMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

bands as far as Leicester town was concerned. But 
at Bradgate, Stamford gathered the violent faction 
of the party, and assisted by Lord Ruthven, and Sir 
Arthur Haselrigg, superintended the drilling of his 
unmilitary supporters, and organised a body of 130 
musketeers for the defence of his mansion, equipped 
from the stores of the magazine. It became 
apparent to Mr. Hastings that Stamford had 
resolved to push the quarrel to extremity. He 
therefore determined to bring matters to an 
immediate issue. Leaving the burgesses of 
Leicester under a cloud of suspense, and Bradgate 
in a state of siege, and accompanied by several 
friends, he rode along the great North Road to 
York. He had kept his Majesty exactly informed 
by means of daily messengers of the progress of 
events in Leicestershire, but the time had now 
arrived for determinate action. So along the 
historic roadway he galloped in the June sunshine. 
The hedges had already donned their green coats, 
and the dog roses bloomed upon their branches, the 
labourers dropped their hoes and watched him pass, 
but he rode on, his mind absorbed in great schemes, 
until the turretted Towers of York rose distinct out 
of the horizon. Arrived at York he sought audience 
of the King, and after one night's refreshment and 
rest commenced his homeward journey, through 
loyal Pontefract, indifferent Doncaster, and 
friendly iS^ewark, carrying in his pocket the Com- 
mission of Array for Leicestershire. That docu- 
ment honoured and distinguished Leicestershire as 
the first of the Forty Counties of England to receive 
the King's appeal for help. It was written in legal 
Latin, addressed to the Earls of Huntingdon and 
Devonshire, Sir Richard Halford, and himself, and 
signed by the royal hand. It empowered the four 



THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 165 

gentlemen named, or any one of tliem, under pre- 
tence of the malice of public enemies, and the 
apprehension of an invasion of the Kingdom to arm, 
train, and array, all of bodily ability, or of sufficient 
means to enlist soldiers, both within, and without, 
the liberties of the county, to be conducted to the 
sea coast, or elsewhere, as might afterwards seem 
expedient ; to erect bale fires and beacons ; and to 
claim the assistance of all barons, bailiffs, sheriffs, 
and constables, in the furtherance of the Commis- 
sion. Those labouring under bodily infirmity were 
required to furnish offensive or defensive weapons 
according to the amount of their property, as esti- 
mated by the Commissioners. 

HASTINGS AND HIS FATHER. 

On the evening of June 15th Mr. Hastings drew 
rein at the Great Gateway of his father's Castle, and 
hurried to his presence. Strong and resolute to 
further his royal master's cause, as was the brave 
cavalier, he involuntarily heaved a sigh of regret 
as he entered the old Earl's chamber. It was dis- 
tasteful to break upon his retirement with the 
abrupt intelligence of war, for deeply as he sympa- 
thised with his homeless Sovereign, the Earl, 
broken in health, and prematurely aged, lacked the 
strength and energy to take a personal part in the 
approaching conflict. Ten lonely years of bereave- 
ment had greatly lessened his interest in local and 
Imperial affairs. Although he lacked nothing of 
that warm loyalty for which his family had ever 
been distinguished, he yet realised that his day was 
spent, and that other arms must strike the blows, 
and other brains must guide the councils that should 
restore the King's power; while his willing 
generosity should strive to supply financial aid. 



166 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

His lonely heart craved that quiet season of medita- 
tion that forms a flitting environment for men who 
feel that the mysteries of the unknown world are 
crowding around them. For him the harmony of 
life had given place to unrestful discords, and the 
Golden Age of Ashby Castle had reached its sunset, 
when he stood, broken-hearted and desolate, beside 
the open grave of his beloved wife. 

The disaffection of his heir Lord Ferdinando had 
grieved him sorely, and when he took the royal 
document in his trembling hand, and scanned its 
contents, he noted the significant omission of the 
young nobleman's name. But he turned with con- 
fidence to his younger son, and committed to his 
charge the care of the Castle. 

At the close of the interview Henry Hastings left 
his father's presence with a fixed resolution to stake 
fortune and life in his Sovereign's cause. During 
his long ride from York he had matured his plan of 
action. Next morning betimes he rode to Leicester, 
and hurried to the Old Guildhall. The Mayor and 
Aldermen had already assembled in the Council 
Chamber, and a number of townspeople occupied 
the public benches. 

THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 

To the Mayor he handed the Commission of 
Array, who passed it to the Town Clerk with a 
request that he would construe its contents into 
homely English. The scene in the Council Chamber 
might furnish a worthy subject for an artist's brush. 
His Worship rose from his official seat in deference 
to the King's message ; the Councillors, less hearty 
in their loyalty, stood grouped about him ; the 
Town Clerk adjusted his barnacles ; and the inquisi- 
tive citizens strained their ears to gather the pur- 



THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 167 

port of their Sovereign's will; while Hastings, 
calm and impassive, looked on, with curious 
interest. No man questioned the authority of the 
document, questions and criticisms fovind voice in 
after thought. Slowly the Town Clerk translated 
the Commission in the intense silence, and when he 
pronounced the Charles E,., inscribed at its foot by 
the King's own hand, the assembly felt that its 
authority had abrogated the Parliamentary decree, 
and placed the direction of affairs in Mr. Hastings' 
hands. The Cavalier watched the meeting dis- 
perse, and after giving instructions that a copy 
should be handed to the Earl, returned to his inn. 

On receiving the document, however, the Earl 
wrote to the Lords, " informing them that he had 
executed the Parliament's Militia Ordinance in 
Leicestershire with great success but that a Com- 
mission of Array was granted to the Earls of 
Huntingdon and Devonshire, and others, to oppose 
him therein, and requiring them to arraj^, train, 
and muster the people ; that the said Commission 
was to take place in a few days ; and, therefore, he 
desired the advice of Parliament what he should do 
if the said Commission was put into execution." 

Parliament at once appointed a Committee of 
both Houses to consider how to prevent this new and 
dangerous project. 

Stamford now proceeded to remove the remainder 
of the magazine, but Mr. Hastings interposed, 
desiring the Mayor to set a guard over the building 
that contained it, night and day. 

THOMAS RUDIAM. 

Perhaps no Mayor of Leicester, before or after 
him, ever experienced so harrassing a year of office 
as Thomas Rudiam. His political bias and private 



168 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

conviction bound him to the Royalist Cause ; but 
oversbadowing bis official life tbe great form of 
Stamford towered, commanding tbe sympatbetic 
co-operation of bis civic associates. A weaker man 
would bave become a mere puppet of tbe Lord of 
Bradgate, but Tbomas Rudiam, according to bis 
streugtb, maintained a consistent independence in 
tbe Council, and on tbat account received a sum- 
mons to appear before tbe Bar of tbe House of 
Commons to answer for bis delinquency, and to 
suffer imprisonment during a portion of bis 
mayoralty. 

Tbe Commission of Array caused no little stir in 
Parliament. A close examination sbowed tbe 
document to bave been prepared by able lawyers, 
after consulting tbe old records. It bad been 
drawn up in anticipation of coming troubles, and 
tbe utmost secrecy bad been maintained in regard 
to it. Tbe exulting Royalists regarded it as a 
master stroke of policy. It fell amongst tbe bewil- 
dered Parliamentarians like a tbunderbolt; claim- 
ing, as it did, obedience to tbe lawful and regnant 
Sovereign of tbe realm. For more tban a tbousand 
years, as Cbarles was wont to assert, tbe King bad 
been tbe fountain of autbority. His kingly prero- 
gative to command bad remained uncballenged ; 
disputes as to tbe rigbtful occupancy of tbe Tbrone 
bad frequently convulsed tbe national life, but 
resistance to tbe autbority of tbe establisbed King 
bad been unknown. Efforts bad been successfully 
made to wrest privileges from bim, but it bad 
always been an axiom of government tbat sucb con- 
cessions were an act of grace. 

His title to tbe supreme beadsbip of all national 
forces bad never been disputed. Feudalism bad 
establisbed and crystalised tbat beadsbip, wbile tbe 



THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 169 

decline of Feudalism had consolidated it. Tke 
forces of mediaeval times controlled sectionally by 
territorial lords had been nominally his. In the 
changeful Tudor era the same understanding had 
prevailed ; in the anxious period of the Armada 
the resolute Queen had ridden warrior-like to Til- 
bury forts, to animate her soldiers. Even in the 
rebellion under discussion the revolutionary 
party acted in the King's name, and every Commis- 
sion they granted was under the authority of his 
name, assuming the protection of his august person 
to be a sacred duty. When Cromwell afterwards in 
brutal earnestness declared that if he were to 
encounter the King in battle he would shoot him, 
as he would any other enemy, his statement 
shocked his colleagues. The Houses recognised the 
gravity of the document, and many of their mem- 
bers asserted its authoritativeness. They sub- 
mitted it to the lawyers, who sent for the original 
records, with which they carefully compared it, and 
ultimately, to the great relief of Parliament, dis- 
covei^d a difference. Precedent, they declared, 
permitted the Sovereign to issue such a Commission 
only in case of foreign invasion. Parliament at 
once voted the Commission to be against law, and 
against the liberty and property of the subject : and 
all those who are actors in putting the Commission 
of Array in execution shall be esteemed as dis- 
turbers of the liberty of the subject. It was 
ordered also that this Commission of Array with 
the aforesaid votes shall be forthwith printed and 
published throughout the Kingdom, and lastly, that 
all those persons, except the Peers, who had 
executed this Commission in Leicestershire, should 
be sent for as delinquents. Two Parliamentary 
messengers, John Chambers and James Stamford, 



170 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

were despatclied to Leicestersliire witli mstructions 
to arrest Mr. Hastings and his associates. 

But while Parliament discussed the Commission 
of Array, Stamford proceeded energetically with 
the task of fortifying Bradgate. Deeming his 
musketeer guard a sufficient defence for the 
mansion itself, he established a camp for recruits at 
Copt Oak. On the evening of June 20th, the day 
the messengers arrived at Bradgate, he visited 
Leicester, accompanied by them; arrested the 
Under-Sheriff, an active Royalist; fastened a 
printed copy of the ^ otes of Parliament in connec- 
tion with the Commission of Array to the gates of 
the " Angel Inn '' ; and returned to Bradgate with 
another portion of the magazine. Reports were 
freely circulating in the county of warlike Royalist 
preparations, and the garrison at Bradgate hourly 
expected to be attacked. 

ASHBY ROUSED. 

The state of affairs at Ashby-de-la-Zouch 
afforded colour to the forebodings of the Bradgate 
garrison. The Commission of Array had already 
produced an appreciable effect in the county. 
Since its presentation to the Mayor of Leicester, 
its contents had been earnestly considered in halls 
of the Squirearchy and the homesteads of the 
Yeomanry, and with a result favourable to 
Hastings' agitation. Already his supporters were 
gathering in the Castle. Squires and yeomen, 
mounted on their own steeds ; horse dealers, 
grooms, and ostlers ; and young tradesmen, bound 
by hereditary loyalty to the Huntingdons; 
crowded into the courtyard, volunteering service. 
Hastings welcomed all, asking no questions. Even 
footpads and highAvaymen presented themselves; 



THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 171 

and Will JSTevison, tlie notorious terror of tlie 
Leicestershire turnpikes, became one of his busiest 
scouts. He bought up all weapons available, and 
his agents scoured the towns in quest of saddlery 
and ammunition. On returning from Leicester 
on the 16th June, one of his first measures had 
been to despatch messengers to his father's 
collieries to raise the miners and lead them, with 
the pit horses, to Loughborough. According to a 
contemporary pamphlet, he appears to have 
arranged to bring 500 men to Leicester to join the 
forces of Colonel Lumsford and Captain Legge, 
amounting to an equal number, and with the com- 
bined troops, after overawing Leicester, to march 
to Bradgate and capture the magazine, but his 
plans miscarried. " Being in possession of several 
coal mines in Derbyshire, he raised 100 colliers, 
armed with pikes, muskets, and calivers, and used 
engine horses (a few of the train bands joined 
him) ; assembled his friends at Loughborough, 
where, and at Ashby, he bought up all the powder 
and troopers' saddles that on sudden could be had. 
When all were come together he made proclama- 
tion that whoever wanted arms should be furnished 
from Garrendon Abbey, and other Popish places, 
and so they marched to Leicester, with drums 
beating, colours fljdng, and himself marching 
before them." 

WALTER HASTINGS. 

His cousin, Mr. Walter Hastings, had been 
instructed to create a diversion the same morning 
in Leicester. Mr. Archdale Palmer, the High 
Sheriff, was known to be staying at the '' Heron 
Inn," the hostel favoured by the Roundheads. 
Faithful to his instructions the choleric squire. 



172 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

accompanied by Lord Lovelace and Mr. Killigrew, 
and followed by a rabble of townspeople, rode into 
the inn yard, vowing lie would eat the Sheriff up. 
On cooling down he addressed the crowd, bidding 
them to stand up for the King and for the House 
of Huntingdon that had ever been loyal. His 
oratory, however, failed to evoke any sympathetic 
response, for the people told him plainly they were 
for " King and Parliament." By this time the 
High Sheriff had joined the assemblage, and Mr. 
Hastings called upon him to read the Commission 
of Array, but he answered that he had no copy 
in his possession, and Mr. Hastings retired to 
await his cousin's coming. 

ENFORCING THE COMMISSION. 

A distance of about a dozen miles separates 
Loughborough from Leicester. The route lies 
through the ancient town of Mount Sorrel. When 
within three miles of Leicester, Mr. Hastings 
caused powder, matches, and bullets to be 
delivered to every musketeer. The cavaliers 
anticipated opposition from the Roundheads, but 
Stamford sat quietly at Bradgate. The burgesses 
of Leicester were in a state of intense excitement. 
Messengers had periodically ridden up to the 
Mayor's residence with news from Loughborough, 
both on the 21st and 22nd. The authorities of the 
town were well informed of the occurrence at 
Loughborough during the forenoon. The 
Royalists did not leave the town before eleven 
o'clock in the forenoon. The Leicester people, 
however, made no attempt to offer an organised 
resistance; indeed, any such idea was barred by 
the absence of the train bands at Bradgate and at 
Copt Oak. The burgesses regarded Hastings' 



THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 173 

movement more as a riot than a military expedi- 
tion, and hundreds of adventurous spirits hurried 
to the Horse Leys to await his appearance. At 
ahout two o'clock his cavalcade was seen to be 
approaching. Mr. Hastings rode at its head, 
accompanied by his intimate friends, and a sedate 
company of thirty-two clergymen in canonicals. 
Amongst the divines the spectators noticed 
Hastings' great friend, Mr. Leverett, the Ibstock 
parson, the successor of Archbishop Laud; next 
in order came 100 horses, a motley company; 
followed by 120 musketeers with matches lighted ; 
and about 100 colliers, armed with pikes, brought 
up the rear. 

By this time the crbwd of spectators numbered 
several thousands, including the High Sheriff and 
the two Commons' messengers, awaiting an oppor- 
tunity to execute their instructions. 

Hastings' appeal. 

With a motion of his hand the Cavalier silenced 
the drums, and proceeded to read the Commission 
of Array. Then he addressed the assemblage. 

"He appealed to the inbred loyalty of English- 
men to their sovereign, and declared his august 
master's desire to avoid bloodshed. He disputed 
the prevalent idea so diligently proclaimed by the 
hot sectaries of the Puritan movement, that the 
English monarchy had allied itself to the Eoman 
Church. It had been persistently asserted that he 
himself belonged to the Eoman fold. He desired 
then and there to solemnly deny the statement, 
and to proclaim his attachment to the faith of the 
Eoyal Earl, and of his father the present Earl. 
The impending struggle was not a conflict for 
religion, or for freedom, but it was a traitorous 



174 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

attempt to deprive tlie sovereign of his kingly pre- 
rogatives. Let them all, without regard to creeds 
or sects, obey the commission of their sovereign 
Lord the King, and cry ' God save the King.' " 

The address was received in sullen silence by 
the people. 

High Sheriff Palmer then stepped forward and 
read the Parliamentary decree against the com- 
mission. It denounced Hastings, Halford, Bale, 
and Pate as delinquents, and ordered the arrest of 
each and all of them. 

Sir Richard Halford contemptuously bade the 
High Sheriff wait until the King's business was 
over, but Henry Hastings maintained a more con- 
ciliatory attitude. Throughout his career he 
seldom lost his head. While appreciating the 
forcefulness of the opposition he would be called 
upon to encounter, he yet knew well that many 
of his opponents were personally friendly to him- 
self, and despaired not of winning them over to 
the King's side. He quietly invited the people to 
remain patient, and to accompany him to the 
" Angel " to confer with the Royalist leaders, 
promising them at the same time civil treatment. 

AN UNDIGNIFIED MESSENGER. 

The bigoted Chambers, however, had not come 
to Leicester to conciliate, but to suppress. Calling 
loudly to those around him for support in arresting 
the malignants, he rushed to Hastings and laid 
hands on him. In the confusion two butchers 
lifted the cavalier upon his horse, placing a loaded 
petronel in his hand. The opposing parties began 
to press together. An aggressive temper began 
to dominate the Roundheads, and a flight appeared 
imminent. Mr. Hastings passed the word to 



THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 175 

Captain Worsley to command his musketeers to 
fire upon his clamorous enemies, but a sudden 
shower of rain fell, preventing the fusilade, and 
the Roundheads began to disperse. Then the 
cavaliers, accompanied by their reverend allies, 
moved for the town. During the procession to the 
town an incident occurred that brought ridicule 
upon Chambers. Walter Hastings, inflamed at the 
thought of his fiasco of the forenoon, spurring his 
mettlesome charger, endeavoured to ride him down, 
and b}^ his superior horsemanship succeeded in 
unhorsing him. To escape his tormentor the un- 
lucky messenger climbed the town rampart; but 
a King's man pushed him into the ditch, where 
he lay until his own party discovered and escorted 
him to the '' Heron Inn." 

Arriving at the " Angel," the cavaliers barri- 
caded the doors and entrance gates. It soon be- 
came evident, however, that no Roundhead troops 
were stationed in the town, and an unarmed mob 
could offer no impediment to an equipped force, 
so the cavaliers returned in the evening to 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Hastings manifested no 
solicitude for the thirty-two divines. He knew 
they were comfortably ensconced in snug quarters 
and able to care for their own safety, so he left 
them in Leicester, a butt for the sarcasm of the 
Roundheads. It is amusing to note that when- 
ever the members' of the Sacred Order came in 
contact with him, they invariably retired with loss 
of dignity. 

TO THE KING. 

From Ashby-de-la-Zouch Hastings immediately 
communicated the result of his proceedings at 
Leicester to the King. Charles replied, giving 



176 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

him " thanks for his faithful endeavours to pre- 
serve his royal and legal authority, and enjoining 
him to use his power in apprehending the Earl of 
Stamford, who by force and under pretence of 
authority by the pretended ordinance of the two 
Houses of Parliament, had surprised all, or part of 
the magazine of munition belonging to the county 
of Leicester, and keeps the same by force ; which 
was actually levying war against himself; and 
therefore he could not account him and his adhe- 
rents other than traitors." 

On the receipt of this letter Hastings im- 
mediately proceeded to Leicester with a consider- 
able force and publicly proclaimed Stamford. 

EXECUTING THE COMMISSION. 

Meanwhile the Earl, through his steward Salis- 
bury, an irascible puritan, actuated by bitter 
animosity towards Hastings, kept Parliament fully 
informed of the Cavalier's proceedings. Salisbury 
complains that under the authority of the Com- 
mission of Array Hastings had issued warrants to 
the various constables of several hundreds of 
Leicestershire to serve and obtain recruits; and 
had loudly proclaimed his intention to seize the 
town magazine by force from Bradgate, if he 
could not obtain it by fair means. He referred 
especially to a particular warrant served on the 
Head Constable of the Sparkehoe hundred, and to 
a letter despatched to William Ward, David 
Dickens, Richard Ludlam, and William Franks, 
describing the raid on Leicester, and proclaiming 
William Eaynor, the custodian of the remaining 
portion of the magazine, a traitor. This informa- 
tion made a grave impression upon Parliament. 
Orders were at once issued to Lord Grey of Groby 



THE COMMISSION 0? AERAY. 177 

to hasten to Bradgate to strengthen his father's 
hands. The Houses were already in possession of 
a full account of the events of June 21st and 22nd, 
supplemented by a report from the Committee for 
Leicester. The Committee so strongly denounced 
the Mayor's conduct that he was summoned before 
Parliament and imprisoned. Acting upon Salis- 
bury's information the Commons appointed a 
committee to draw up a specific charge against 
Hastings. That Cavalier was well aware of the 
doings in Parliament, but nothing daunted, con- 
tinued his efforts to obtain arms and ammunition 
for his followers. One day, attended by a large 
following, he rode up to the front door of Bradgate 
Hall and held a stormy interview with the Earl, 
in which he demanded in the King's name the 
surrender of the magazine; but Stamford, safely 
protected behind the defences, and guarded by his 
musketeers, declined, upon which, foaming with 
rage, he retired to Ashby-de-la-Zouch to await his 
opportimity. 

Mr. Salisbury did not fail to report this occur- 
rence to the Houses, and to expatiate upon the 
unsettled state of the county, upon which the 
impatient Commons put into force that potent 
instrument they had used so successfully against 
Strafford ; the Judgment of Impeachment. It 
was the exercise of the highest function of Parlia- 
mentary prerogative. The practice of impeaching 
offenders, so frequently resorted to under the 
Yorkist and Lancastrian dynasties, had been 
largely discontinued during the Tudor reigns. 
James I. revived the practice, and in doing so 
awakened a Nemesis, that was destined to follow, 
and to strike down his son, and to eventually 
annihilate his house. 

13 



178 KOMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

Upon the meeting of the House of Commons, the 
Committee having prepared the charge against Mr. 
Hastings according to direction, and appointment 
given them by the House, it was publicly read, and 
the Lords' House being completed, settled that 
the said charges be sent up to them for their 
approbation, also with a desire of the said Com- 
mittee that the said Mr. Hastings might be forth- 
with proceeded against, which was assented to, and 
an order i^-sued for his summoning in, to answer the 
same. The date fixed for his appearance, together 
with his three fellow offenders, before the Bar of 
the House was August 30th. 

Mr. Hastings had now brought his fortunes to 
a pass sufficientlv perilous to awaken reflection in 
the mind of a man of ordinary courage. But no 
thought of personal danger troubled him. For 
him there could be no withdrawal. 

ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT. 

The Articles of Impeachment are as follows : — 
" Whereas by Order and Command of the Lords 
and Commons; for the safety and defence of the 
County of Leicester, the Magazine of the said 
County, was delivered into the hands of Henry 
Earl of Stamford, who in June, 1642, removed a 
great part thereof to his dwelling-house called 
Bradgate, in the said County, for the more safety 
and security thereof. 

" And whereas in the said month of June, several 
warrants issued out, by order of both Houses of 
Parliament; the one directed to the Gentleman 
Usher of the House of Peers, his Deputy, or 
Deputies; the other to the Serjeant-at-Arms 
attending on this House, his Deputy, or Deputies, 
for the apprehending of the said Henry Hastings, 



THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 179 

Sir Ricliard Halford, Sir Jolm Bale, and JoKn 
Pate, for High. Crimes and Misdemeanours, by 
them committed against the said Houses of Parlia- 
ment, to answer the same before the said Houses of 
Parliament. 

" He the said Henry Hastings, Sir Eichard 
Halford, Sir John Bale, and John Pate, being then 
and yet Justices of the Peace of the said County, 
in or about the 22nd of June, wickedly and 
maliciously, without Warrant of Law, did raise 
and draw out of the several Counties of Derby, 
Lincoln, and Leicester, forces of horse and foot to 
the number of 300 persons, or thereabouts, some of 
them being colliers, and other mean and desperate 
persons, and many of them Papists, and them un- 
lawfully assembled at Loughborough, in the said 
County of Leicester; where the said Henry 
Hastings, the day aforesaid, made Proclamation. 

" That if any persons, affected to that service, 
wanted arms, and would repair to the town, thev 
should be furnished therewith. 

" And they the said Henry Hastings, Sir Richard 
Halford, Sir John Bale, and John Pate, together 
with the said other persons so assembled, being 
armed with swords and pikes, and with pistols, 
muskets, and carbines, ready charged with powder 
and bullets, and other habiliments of war, marched 
along in a warlike manner, with drums beating, 
colours flying, and their matches lighted, to the 
great terror and affrightnient of his Majesty's 
subjects, divers miles within the said County of 
Leicester, to the town of Leicester, and so through 
the said town with great noise and shouting-, to 
a certain place near the said town called Horse 
Lease ; to the intent to keep themselves from being 
arrested by the said officers of both Houses of 



180 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

Parliament; and in case they should be arrested, 
then to rescue themselves by force; and to the 
intent likewise to take away the said Magazine 
by force and arms, and to kill and destroy the said 
Earl of Stamford, he the said Henry Hastings, 
and some other of his said accomplices, giving out 
' That they would fetch away the said Magazine 
with a vengeance, and that they would have the 
said Earl's life before they left; and would fire 
his house, and have his heart's blood out, with 
divers other such like desperate speeches.' 

" And the said Henry Hastings, Sir Richard 
Halford, Sir John Bale, and John Pate, with the 
rest of their said confederates, being assembled at 
the said Horse Fair Lease, John Chambers and 
James Stamford being authorised thereunto by a 
deputation under the hand of the officers afore- 
said, together with Archdale Palmer, Esq., then 
High Sheriff of the said County of Leicester, and 
divers other persons in their aid and assistance, 
repaired to the said place to execute the said 
warrants from both Houses of Parliament; and 
the said Henry Hastings, well knowing thereof, 
did then tell the said Chambers ' That he knew he 
had warrants from Parliament as well for others as 
for himself ' ; whereupon the said Chambers pro- 
duced the said warrants, and read them openly in 
the hearing of the said Henry Hastings, Sir 
Richard Halford, Sir John Bale, and John Pate, 
to yield obedience to the said warrants; which 
they refused to do ; but instead thereof, they and 
their other adherents did violently assault the 
said High Sheriff, Chambers, and Stamford, and 
rode upon them with their horses ; and one of the 
said confederates, named Mr. Walter Hastings, 
with his pistol charged, gave fire upon the said 



THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 181 

Chambers, and some others of them drew out their 
pistols, and presented their muskets upon the said 
High Sheriff and Chambers, using other force and 
violence upon them to the great danger of their 
lives ; and the said Henry Hastings, Sir Richard 
Halford, Sir John Bale, and John Pate, by force 
and arms, and in a warlike manner at the time 
and place aforesaid, rescued themselves from the 
said officers and High Sheriff in contempt of justice, 
and to the high affront and scorn of Parliament; 
and afterwards marched back again, in warlike 
manner, into the said town of Leicester ; all which 
doings of the said Henry Hastings, Sir Richard 
Halford, Sir John Bale, and John Pate, were and 
are contrary to the Laws of the Realm, the Rights 
and Privileges of Parliament, tending to Sedition, 
and to the danger and effusion of much blood. 

" Whereupon the said Commons do, in the 
names of themselves, and all the Commoners of 
Eno-land, impeach the said Henry Hastings, Sir 
Richard Halford, and Sir John Bale and John 
Pate of the said several high crimes and misde- 
meanours. 

" And the said Commons, by Protestation, saving 
to themselves now, and at all times hereafter, the 
liberty of exhibiting of any other accusation or 
impeachment against the said Henry Hastings, 
Sir Richard Halford, Sir John Bale, and John 
Pate, or anv of them ; and of replying to the 
answers which they or any of them shall make ; 
or of offering any proofs of the premises, or any of 
them, as the case, according to the Courts of 
Justice shall require ; do pray that the said Henry 
Hastings, Sir Richard Halford, Sir John Bale, and 
John Pate, and every of them, may be forthwith 
put to answer the premises in presence of the 



182 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

Commons; and tliat sucli proceedings, examina- 
tions, trials, and judgments may be upon them, 
and every of them, had and used, as shall be agree- 
able to Law and Justice. 

'' It was ordered that at a time fixed these afore- 
said gentlemen appear before the House to hear 
the Impeachment read, and to put in their 
answers to it." 

Having Impeached Henry Hastings, Parliament 
proceeded to instruct the Judges engaged at the 
Summer Assizes in the matter of the Commission 
of Array, issuing to them the following order : — 

Order of the Lords and Commons assembled in 
Parliament. 

ORDER TO JUDGES. 

"Whereas several Commissions of Array have 
been lately issued out, under the Great Seal 
of England, into the several Counties of this 
Realm, tending to the great danger to his Majesty, 
and the disturbance of the peace of the Kingdom. 
For the preventing of, and execution of, 
and issuing out of any such Commissions 
for the time to come, it is ordered by the 
Lords and Commons, the Judges and Justices of 
Assizes, of the several counties of England and 
Wales, be required in their several counties at the 
Assizes and Sessions, to be next held for each 
county, within this Realm, and the Dominion of 
Wales, in open Court, in their several charges to 
be delivered to the Grand Juries, at the said Assizes, 
openly to declare and publish that the said Lords 
and Commons have upon mature deliberation 
resolved upon the question, ' That the said Com- 
m.issions are against Law, and against the Liberty 
and the Property of the subject.' 



THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 183 

" And all those that are authors in putting the 
same in execution shall be esteemed Disturbers 
of the Peace of the Kingdom, and Betrayers of the 
Liberty of the subject. 

"Ordered to be printed, 

" John Brown, 

" Cer Pari." 

THE KING AT LEICESTER. 

In the light of Parliamentary procedure, it 
became apparent to Henry Hastings that im- 
mediate steps of an imperative character must be 
taken to establish the Royal supremacy in 
Leicestershire. The Assizes were about to be 
held, over which a Judge named Reeves had been 
appointed to preside. Clarendon describes him as 
a man of good reputation for learning and in- 
tegrity, and who in good times would have been 
a good judge. The occasion appeared to be 
auspicious, and Hastings appealed to the King to 
visit the town. His Majesty reached Leicester 
from Beverley on July 22nd, accompanied by 
Prince Charles and Prince Rupert. The burgesses 
received him with great expressions of duty and 
loyalty, by the appearance of the train bands, and 
the full acclamations of the people ; the Mayor and 
Corporation awaited him at Frog Island, and con- 
ducted him to Lord's Place, where the Earl and 
Henry Hastings entertained him. 

But he had not hurried to Leicester to attract 
empty homage. In his forlorn heart he yearned 
for hearty service, and to the Old Guildhall he made 
his way, where Reeves sat, clad in his judicial 
robes, with the recent Parliamentary order before 
him. Surely no English Judge ever contem- 



184 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

plated a more distasteful task, viz., to disobey tlie 
King's commands in the King's name. Seated by 
bis side, bis Majesty watcbed tbe transaction of 
County business, and tbe object for wbicb be visited 
Leicester was achieved, by tbe appointment to tbe 
Higb Sheriffalty of his leal friend Henry Hastings. 
This appointment settled, he appealed to the county 
people for support. Before E-oundheads and 
Royalists his Majesty unbent to be a suppliant, 
and the incident left a painful memory in his mind, 
for majesty pleaded in vain. Everywhere lip 
loyalty environed him. Stamford and his chief 
adherents had fled in haste to Northampton at his 
approach, but had left a legacy of annoyance be- 
hind in the shape of a guard of Roundhead soldiers 
to protect the remainder of the magazine. The 
King had come to Leicester unaccompanied by an 
armed following. He therefore requested the 
Judge to remove the Roundheads, but Reeves had 
no force at his disposal. Accordingly some country 
gentlemen, who had not yet declared for either 
King or Parliament, visited the magazine, and 
prevailed upon the obnoxious guard to quit the 
town, under promise of safe passage. 



On Sunday the King attended St. Martin's 
Church. Great preparations had been made to 
celebrate the event. The good Countess of Devon- 
shire had placed a throne in the chancel, and caused 
the building to be decorated with greenery. The 
parish authorities had provided flowers and herbs. 
The Mayor and Corporation attended at Lord's 
Place in their robes to conduct his Majesty to 
church. Every expression of deference attended 
on his pleasure, but the lonely King realised that 



THE COMMISSION OF ARRAY. 185 

his good subjects of Leicester had only Dead Sea 
apples to lay upon their banquet table. 

When the Mayor and Councillors arrived at 
Lord's Place on the following day, they were in- 
formed that the King had departed from Leicester. 

During the Royal visit Henry Hastings found 
opportunity to discuss county affairs with Rupert, 
especially the all-important question of the 
magazine at Bradgate. As a result of their con- 
sultation the two cavaliers parted with a mutual 
understanding. Parliament had fixed August 
30th as the day on which Hastings must appear 
before its Bar to answer his impeachment. 

A RAID ON BRADGATE. 

The two cavaliers decided to give Parliament an 
answer of a different quality. On that day Rupert 
rode through the great gates of Bradgate Park, 
at the head of a well-equipped force of 600 troopers, 
with Hastings at his side. Over the green turf of 
the park they galloped with jingling spurs and 
shouts of triumph. They were the advance guard 
of the Royal army. Salisbury and the servants 
peered through the hall windows and saw a sight 
that made their hearts quail with fear. The Earl 
and his colleagues were away at Copt Oak. The 
equanimity of the domestic chaplain deserted him, 
and he fled for his life, with the fleet feet of fear, 
leaving his flock to the ravening fangs of wolves, 
and his gown and bands to be carried by irreverent 
hands as a trophy to Ashby-de-la-Zouch. The 
musketeers dispersed, and the boisterous cavaliers 
battered open the oaken doors, and poured into 
the mansion in search of arms and ammunition. 
The household became panic-stricken. All who 
were able followed the prudent example of the 



186 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

chaplain. It is recorded that the cavaliers rushed 
through the mansion threatening and cursing, 
crying, " where are the brats ? we will kill them." 
But the cavalier force consisted mainly of gentle- 
men, led by a Royal Prince of generous instincts, 
who had not yet grown accustomed to the brutality 
that was in later times to characterise the opera- 
tions of the coming war; and no blood was shed. 
Only the magazine was wanted ; it had been 
Hastings' fixed resolve for three months to recover 
it, and he had succeeded. The accomplishment of 
his purpose was his triumphant answer to Parlia- 
ment. 



A FIGHT FOE LICHFIELD. 

CHAPTER IX. 

A.D. 1642-1643. 

ATTACK ON THE CASTLE. 

THE year 1643 opened with gloomy prospects 
for Henry Hastings. A letter from him on 
January ITtli (old date) to Prince Enpert describes 
his difficult position — 

" May it please your Eoyal Highness, 
" To give me leave to trouble you with the 
relation of things here. The Lord Grey hath been 
this week at Leicester with 400 horse or there- 
about, and the forces belonging to Derby are about 
1,200 (that is a town of no considerable strength and 
full of wealth). All their forces are now joined 
together in a body within three miles of Ashby-de- 
la-Zouch, where I am now, and will this day fall 
upon me. God willing, I will do my utmost endea- 
vour to keep this place, in hopes of your Highness' 
gracious favour to relieve me, and I shall have 500 
horse and foot to join with such forces as your 
Highness shall please to send me. 

Your Highness' most humble servant, 

Henry Hastings. 



188 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

The raid on Bradgate had roused in the Stam- 
fords a thirst for revenge. As Hastings predicted, 
Lord Grey delivered his attack with a force better 
armed and disciplined than the garrison, drove in 
the ontposts, and forced the whole garrison into the 
Keep ; but a rumour of Rupert's approach caused 
him to retire in haste to Collorton. Meanwhile, 
until the siege, Hastings established at his father's 
castle, harried the district to the walls of Leicester, 
and disputed with the Stamfords. 

SIR JOHN GELL. 

The close of 1642 had established a formidable 
Parliamentary confederation in the associated 
counties of Leicester, Derby, Stafford, Northamp- 
ton, and Warwick, under the supreme command of 
Lord Brooke, of Warwick Castle. Under him Lord 
Grey commanded in Leicestershire, and Sir John 
Gell in Derbyshire. Gell acquired an absolute con- 
trol over the town of Derby. After earning an 
invidious reputation as a King's agent in levying 
ship money, he had adopted the Parliamentary 
cause. "No one," writes Mrs. Hutchinson in her 
" Memoirs," '^ not even himself, knew for what 
reason he chose that side, for he had not understand- 
ing enough to judge the equity of the cause, nor 
piety, nor holiness, being a foul adulterer ; but he 
was a stout fighting man, although the most licen- 
tious and ungovernable soldier of the Parliament. 
Amongst the county gentry of Staffordshire a pro- 
nounced Royalist sentiment prevailed, and the 
King's garrisons held Dudley, Tutbury, and Staf- 
ford Castles. But the loyal gentry of Lichfield, led 



A FIGHT FOR LICHFIELD. 189 

by Sir Eicliarcl Dyott, attracted tlie resentment of 
the Association leaders, by hoisting the King's 
colours upon the spire of tlieir glorious Catbedral, 
and fortifying the Close. 

THE CLOSE. 

Leland thus described tlie Close : — The whole 
Close was newly dyked by Bishop Laiigdon, who 
made a gate at the west part, a lesser at the south- 
east, and the Bishop's Palace at the east end. The 
glory of the Cathedral Church is the work at the 
west end, costly and fair. There be three stone 
pyramids, two at the west end, and one in the 
middle. The prebendaries' houses in the Close 
builded by divers men be very fair. The Cathedral 
being situated on an eminence was at an early 
period used as a fortress, and enclosed about with a 
wall, and a good deep dry trench on all sides except 
towards the city, where it was defended by a great 
marsh or pool." 

But the zealous gentry of Lichfield speedily 
realised their premature indiscretion. The town 
contained a strong Parliamentary party, who com- 
municated at once with Lord Brook, imploring him 
to march to their assistance. At this juncture the 
arrival of the Earl of Chesterfield with a reinforce- 
ment of fifty-six men, temporarily inspirited the 
garrison. The Earl assumed the command, but 
physical incapacity disqualified him for active 
leadership. He had passed middle age ; his early 
life had been spent in dissipation; and he was a 
martyr to gout. Meanwhile the reports reached 
Lichfield of formidable preparations in progress at 
Warwick Castle. No time was to be lost ; no friend 
but Hastings was near ; and the distressed Royalists 
appealed to him. 



190 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

The difficulty of Hastings' own position at Ashby- 
de-la-Zoucli demanded serious consideration. 
Since the raid on Bradgate he had put forth stupen- 
dous exertions. He had fortified and provisioned 
the Castle ; he had taken part in the opening cam- 
paign of the war, fighting stoutly at Edge Hill, and 
conducting his Blue Coats safely back to Ashby-de- 
la-Zouch after the battle ; and he had survived a 
determined attack of Lord Grey's forces, but an 
incident of personal discomfort had tended to 
depress his spirits. In one of the numerous skir- 
mishes of the campaign he had lost an eye. Yet 
in his capacity of Colonel-General of the Midlands 
he determined to assist the Lichfield Royalists. 

TAMWORTH CASTLE. 

In the projected expedition it was necessary that 
Tamworth Castle should be taken into account. 
Perched upon the summit of the mighty rock, with 
a sufficient fighting force it might have blocked the 
route to Lichfield. But by means of spies, 
Hastings ascertained that the numerical strength 
of its garrison barely sufficed for defensive pur- 
poses; and that on account of its isolation from 
either roundhead base of operations, no interference 
need be feared. Accordingly, leaving Ben Scuda- 
more responsible for the safety of Ashby Castle, 
Hastings hastened to Lichfield with a reinforce- 
ment of 150 men. He found the Close in confusion. 
Chesterfield was confined to his chamber; the 
officers had no consecutive plan of defence; Sir 
Richard Dyott's house had been converted into a 
hospital for the wounded from Edge Hill; while 
the sacred enclosure at the west front of the 
Cathedral had been filled with baggage waggons 
and tethered horses and cattle. Assuming imme- 



A FIGHT FOR LICHFIELD. 191 

diate command as Chesterfield's deputy, Hastings 
restored order, and stationed tlie fighting men in 
defensive positions. He had time for little more, 
for news arrived that Lord Brook had started from 
Warwick Castle. 

At a Council of War in Chesterfield's sick 
chamber, it was deemed advisable that Hastings 
and his following sliould remain o^itside the Close 
during the approaching siege, botit to economise 
the food supply and to raise a relief force. Rushall 
Hall, a mansion some miles distant, had already 
been fortified, under the direction of Colonel Lane 
There Hastings decided to establish himself, and to 
immediately open negotiations with Lord North- 
ampton. 

MY LORD BEOOK. 

On the 1st March the rebel army reached Lich- 
field. Lord Brook drew up his men near the town, 
and addressed to them a religious exhortation, 
declaring that he had come to Lichfield to destroy 
the beautiful Cathedral, and leave not one stone 
upon another. One of the striking figures of the 
stern age in which he lived, Eobert Lord Brook was 
esteemed a man of great account amongst the Par- 
liamentarians, because of his high birth and great 
integrity. He wore a plush cassock, with plate 
armour, and a plumed helmet of steel, which had 
five bars of gilt steel in front, and a chaplet of 
laurel. Having concluded his address, he raised 
his hands, and prayed devoutly for a blessing upon 
his intended work ; withal earnestly desiring that 
God would, by some special token manifest upon 
them his approbation of that their design, then the 
whole army raised their favourite Psalm : — 



192 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE, 

Lift up your voice ye saints, and sing 

The praises of your Lord ; 
And in your hand unsheathed bring 

The sharp two edged sword. 
To smite the Heathen, and correct 

The people with your hands, 
To bind their stately Kings in chains, 

Their lords in iron bands. 
To execute on them the doom 

That written was before : 
This honour all the saints shall have ; 

Praise ye the Lord therefore. 

With the sentiments of the ancient bard so 
opposed to our modern conception of God's gracious 
purpose in their minds, the Eoundheads rushed 
furiously to the town gate, and beat it down. They 
would have stormed Lichfield, but the garrison had 
discreetly withdrawn to the Close. 

A long pool separated the town from the Close, 
crossed by two causeways, which were commanded 
by the batteries of the fortress. The attack com- 
menced at daybreak on the 2nd March, by a heavy 
Roundhead bombardment, under Lord Brook's eye, 
his Lordship " standing in a window of a little 
house near thereunto to direct the gunners in their 
purposed battery; but it so happened that, there 
being two persons placed in the battlement of the 
chiefest steeple to make shot with their long 
fowling pieces at the cannoniers, upon a sudden 
accident which caused the soldiers to give a sudden 
shout, this Lord coming to the door, was suddenly 
shot into one of his eyes." Many devout Royalists 
noted that this sad event occurred on St. Chad's day, 
and gravely asserted that the General had received 
his Sign, by the hand of Dumb Dyott, a Divine 
instrument. 



A FIGHT FOR LICHFIELD. 193 

The death of Lord Brook caused a temporary 
cessation of hostilities. The Roundheads imme- 
diately despatched an urgent invitation to Sir John 
Gell, then at Derby, to hasten to Lichfield, with 
artillery from Coventry. On his arrival he assumed 
the command, retaining it until the end of the siege 
by the tacit consent of Peto, whom Parliament 
appointed as Lord Brook's successor. Without 
delay he ordered his engineers to fix a battery to 
play upon the north gate, at the same time massing 
a contingent near the guns. He intended that 
arrangement as a feint to draw the besieged from 
the real point of attack, which was to be the west 
gate. The garrison had arranged a sortie, during 
which Hastings was to attack the besiegers in the 
flank. By a pre-arrangement with him he was to 
wait with his horsemen between Pushall and Lich- 
field for the hoisting of a red flag on the Cathedral 
tower. At daybreak the defenders noticed a massing 

SIR John's artifice. 

of troops upon the causeway, which they at once 
prepared to assail with their guns. But they had 
mistaken their man, for as the morning brightened 
they discovered that Gell had collected the wives, 
daughters, and servants of known Royalist residents 
of the to^vn, and forced them upon the causeway in 
the van of his troops. The sight appalled the 
defenders, who groaned as they watched the 
advancing mass of terrified women and grim saints. 
Having crossed the causeway, the assailants found 
access to the gate barred by a massive portcullis. 
Nothing daunted, they drew a bridge of planks 
over the moat, and attempted to cross with quanti- 
ties of pitch, rosin, tar, and torches, intent on 
burning the gate. But the bridge was narrow, and 
14 



194 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

no sooner had it become crowded than the Eoyalist 
marksmen raked it with shot, while stones rained 
down from the bastions. Some of the assailants 
fell into the moat, others dropped wounded upon 
the plank bridge, the remainder endeavoured to 
regain the causeway. But it was already crowded 
with Gell's victims, who blocked retreat on the one 
hand, and re-enforcement on the other. At that 
moment the portcullis fell, and a picked body of 
defenders rushed from the fortress. Many of the 
E-oundheads threw down their arms. The main 
body, however, gained the Barbican Street, where, 
on noticing their superior numbers, they rallied. 
When the sortie commenced, the red flag should 

A BELATED SIGNAL. 

have been hoisted upon Tantany spire, but by a 
misadventure this was delayed, and when Hastings 
received his signal, the fugitives had rallied in 
Barbican Street, and the noise of his galloping 
steeds gave them warning. " On the N.W. and 
S.W. some of his horse entered the town, which 
gave the holy brotherhood a strong alarm, with 
some pickering, insomuch, that if the Colonel had 
kept his ground two or three hours longer; or 
advanced something nearer to the city ; or his body 
there stood, the besiegers had drawn off, for they 
were very much affrighted at his coming, and all 
their cry was " Blind Hastings is coming " ; but 
he drew off suddenly to Eushall, he being always 
careful which way he marched and what he did. 

DESOLATE LICHFIELD. 

At the close of that day of desolation, when the 
sun had set, and the sombre darkness overmantled 
the city, a torchlight procession of Roundhead 



A FIGHT FOR LICHFIFLD. 195 

soldiers passed out of Lichfield, on its way to 
Warwick Castle, with, the corpse of the dead leader. 
Before daybreak the arrival of additional 
artillery enabled Gell to resume the bombardment. 
Contemporary accounts describe one particular 
mortar " as a terrifying gun that shot grenadoes a 
greater distance than the others." It enabled the 
gunners to drop shells into the open part of the 
Close. For hours the murderous hail dropped 
death. The women and children sought shelter in 
the cellars, and the fighting men dropped at their 
posts. The residences of the clergy were scarred, 
and pierced by cannon balls. But amid the 
wreckage the minster staff flitted from station to 
station, tending the wounded. Throughout the day 
at the stated hours, they conducted Divine worship 
in the Cathedral. In the afternoon, just at the con- 
clusion of service, a terrible crash brought the resi- 
dents from their cellars, and caused the soldiers to 
pause in their deadly tasks. The great spire had 
collapsed, and its debris had fallen on the choir, 
crushing the roof. To the stricken residents it 
seemed that the day of doom had come. Lord 
Chesterfield summoned a Council of war in the 
night, at which merciful considerations prevailed, 

HUMANE PETO. 

for at day dawn a flag of truce was sent out. If 
Peto had allowed Grell a free hand with the fighting, 
his milder temper now interposed to arrange the 
terms of capitulation. The fall of Lichfield cannot 
be said to have discouraged the Cavaliers, seeing 
they had from the first realised its inevitability. 

HASTINGS AND NORTHAMPTON. 

Hastings at once addressed himself to the task of 
its recovery, but for that purpose a large reinforce- 



196 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

ment was necessary. He was aware of tlie hopeless* 
ness of an appeal to Rupert, whose duties as Presi- 
dent of Wales absorbed his whole energy; while 
the Earl of Newcastle declined to move south of 
Yorkshire. He therefore re-opened communica- 
tions with the Earl of Northampton, the lordly 
owner of Compton Wynj^ates, who had enlisted and 
equipped a force of 1,000 horse and dragoons at his 
own expense, and had established himself at Ban- 
bury. The following letter explains the success of 
Hastings' forceful appeal : — 

"My Most Honourable Lord the Earl of 

Northampton, — 

" I am extremely joyed to hear you are at 
Henley- in-Arden with your forces, and beseech you 
to advance to TamAvorth, which will be the greatest 
service ever done the King ; for with God's blessing 
we shall beat them out of Lichfield, or suddenly 
starve them all, being there is no relief can com^ to 
them, nor have they any provision for a day, nor 
horse to fetch any, I having so much the greater 
number. Their strength consists of several garri- 
sons, what are now very weak. I have a certainty 
of their number, by the confession of divera 
prisoners, and confirmed by several intercepted 
letters. Their number is as follows : Six small 
troops of horse and dragoons, 300 foot that came 
with the Lord Brook, 400 with Gell, and some 300 
Morelanders, but part of them armed and no 
fighters. I, God willing, will attend your Lord- 
ship with 16 troops of horse and dragoons, and can, 
upon a night's warning, call in 1,000 in Stafford- 
shire, half of them armed, so that with your Lord- 
ship's forces and mine we shall make a good body 
of an army, and I have cannon carriages, six pound 



A FIGHT FOR LICHFIELD. 197 

bullets, and store of small pieces ; and within six 
days can have culvering and demi-ciilvering. My 
Lord, you know it hath ever been my expression 
and design to wait upon you in any action I shall 
do in this, to the uttermost of your command. God 
hath given this fair opportunity to your Lordship 
to make you the most glorious and happy servant 
to his Majesty. The enemy we are to encounter 
are full of distractions with the loss of their Lord 
General, and under several commands, the soldiers 
raw and inexperienced, but rich with plundered 
goods. My Lord, I doubt not, with God's assist- 
ance, of a most happy success, and that you will 
return laden with honour and riches, and take all 
this side of Warwickshire on your return who have 
been great rebels to the King, and are full of 
wealth, which will be the reward of you and your 
soldiers' pains ; your Lordship may survey your 
forces to take many arms and horses. Indeed, my 
Lord, your presence will be of infinite advantage, 
and without it this country is in danger to be lost, 
and the rebels grow to a great body that now are not 
considerable ; therefore, let nothing divert you 
from this good and great work. As soon as I know 
your Lordship's resolution, God willing, I will 
suddenly wait upon you, and doubt not better to 
satisfy you, than I can by letter. But I beseech 
you, believe this, were not the design grounded upon 
much reason, and great probability of happy 
success, I should not thus earnestly press your 
Lordship, that am to yourself, my Lord Compton, 
and your gallant family. 
" Your most faithful and affectionate servant, 

" Henry Hastings." 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Wednesday, 7 o'clock. 



198 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

This letter determined Lord Northainptou to 
march to Hastings' assistance; while a second 
letter, written a week later (and of melancholy 
interest, because it was found upon the dead noble- 
man's person, when the rebels rifled his corpse on 
the battlefield of Hopton Heath) shows how busily 
Hastings prepared to co-operate with him. The 
information it contains also, of whole troops 
deserting the Greys to serve under him, supplies 
an involuntary testimony of his personal popu- 
larity. 

DESERTIONS FROM GREY. 

" May it please your lordship, — 

" I have received your latter dated at two of 
the clock this morning, and accordingly shall 
follow your directions, and lodge my troopers both 
nearer you and Tam worth. I have just now 
despatched a gentleman of my Lord Chaworth to 
Newark for six troops of horse, and 100 muskets of 
which I shall have answer to-morrow morning. 
Here is with me the Sheriff of Eutlandshire and 
one of the Commissioners of Lincolnshire, who I 
shall stay, till I have an answer from Newark. 
There came to me last night five troops, under the 
command of Lord Grey. I have expected them a 
fortnight, and look for more to come. The intelli- 
gence they give me agrees with others in this, that 
their six troops of horse and dragoons were not 
above 240. And there was expected to them from 
Nottingham two troops more, which are all to go to 
Lichfield on a design of this place. 

" They are now at Burton, and by this day's 
moving I shall discover their intention, having 
sent out a party of fifty horse to Lichfield Heath, 
and some spies into both towns. The Lord Grey 



A FIGHT FOR LICHFIELD. 199 

went yesterday to Northampton with forty horse, 
and left Lichfield with but 200 foot. I am cer- 
tainly assured that there is not 400 foot m Lich- 
field, nor 150 horse, Uit from thence I shall know 
more to-morrow morning, and shall send to you 
from time to time what I hear. 

" Your humble servant, 

"Henry Hastings." 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 

Wednesday, 15th, ten o'clock. 
Northampton advanced northward until he 
reached the vicinity of Lichfield, where Hastings 
ioinedhim, as arranged. The combined forces 
then attacked the City of Lichfield with such 
determination that they captured about 100 ot the 
enemy's horse, and drove the Roundheads into the 
Close. Leaving a strong garrison there Sir John 
Gell retired to join Sir William Brueton, who had 
arrived in Staffordshire from Cheshire; while 
Northampton and Hastings withdrew to Stafford. 

HOPTON HEATH. 

The combined Roundhead army numbered 3,000 
horse and foot, together with a park of artillery. 
The associated leaders resolved to advance towards 
Stafford, in the expectation that Northampton 
and Hastings would quit the town to otter 
battle. The two cavaliers appear to have been 
ignorant of Brueton's presence, and to have 
supposed that they had merely to contend with 
Gell's force. In that case, the numbers ot 
the belligerents would have been about equal, 
for Hastings had miscalculated his re-enforce- 
ments, and the Royalist army in consequence 
barely numbered 1,500. On Sunday after- 
noon, March 19th, 1643, the cavaliers marched out 



200 KOMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

of Stafford, to the Heath, two miles distant, where 
they found their enemy drawn up in battle array. 
The battlefield was so circumscribed that a musket 
shot would carry from one fence to another. The 
battle consisted of two cavalry charges, in the first 
of which the Eoyalists, by their personal braveiy 
and superior horsemanship, swept the enemy 
before them. Fortunately for the victors, the 
limited area of the Heath prevented distant pur- 
suit. In the second charge the Roundhead horse 
were flanked by their foot, who poured a protective 
fusilade upon the advancing foe. But on came the 
cavaliers, shouting their war cry, and spurring 
their steeds. Their swords and helmets glittered 
in the setting sun, as impetuous and unconquer- 
able they charged. The Eoundheads turned and 
fled, trampling down their foot. At this juncture 
the Earl's horse dropped under him, leaving him 
behind his own troops and amid the hostile foot. 

DEATH OF NORTHAMPTON. 

He had often declared by the bivouac fire, and on 
the march, that if he outlived these wars he was 
certain never to have so noble a death. And now, 
encompassed by foes, he met Death like a soldier. 
Freeing himself from his dead horse, he sprang to 
his feet and fought for his life, one man against a 
crowd, slaying the Roundhead Colonel. A soldier 
struck off his headpiece with his musket, after 
which the rebels say they offered him quarter, 
which he refused to take, declaring that " he 
scorned to take quarter from such base rogues and 
rebels as they were." A soldier slipped behind 
him and struck him on the hinder part of his head 
with his halbert, and another inflicted a deep 
wound in his face. 



A FIGHT FOR LICHFIELD. 201 

Meanwhile the sun had set. In the darkness the 
Cavaliers, fearing pit holes, abandoned the attack ; 
and the Roundhead foot retreated carrying with 
them the stark corpse of the dead Earl. Next 
day they refused to surrender it, or allow it to be 
embalmed, except their cannon were returned to 
them. 

THE KIJNG's disappointment. 

The failure of the victory of Hopton Heath to 
relieve Lichfield not only caused Hastings annoy- 
ance, but it alarmed the King, who regarded the 
Close as the first of three fortified positions neces- 
sary for the maintenance of a clear passage for the 
Queen from York to Oxford, the other two being 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Newark. The Queen had 
brought stores from Holland, purchased with the 
proceeds of the Crown jewels ; the army at Oxford 
needed supplies, therefore the way must be cleared 
for her Majesty and her convoy. The despatch of 
a strong expedition, under Rupert, to Newark, to 
fetch the Queen had been already decided upon. 
The King now hurried its departure. Circum- 
stances favoured the expedition. Gell was cursing 
at Lichfield, Stamford was preparing for his 
Cornish campaign, and Lord Grrey was guarding 
the paternal estate at Stamford. At the end of 
March Rupert set out from Oxford, with a force of 
1,200 dragoons and 600 foot. The dragoons rode 
in the front, carrying on their horses Irish female 
camp followers. The foot were mostly barefooted 
and half clothed, and armed with pikes, halberts, 
hedgebills, Welsh hooks, pole axes, pitchforks, 
chopping knives, and scythes. The expeditionary 
force passed without delay through Stratford-on- 
Avon, Henley-in-Arden, to Birmingham. 



202 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

From Good Friday to Easter Monday, the 
citizens lived under the strain of intense suspense. 
Crowds gathered in the Bull Ring before the doors 
of St. Martin's Church, calling loudly for advice 
from Mr. Roberts, the minister, their political and 
spiritual leader. For many months he had 
thundered declamations against the ungodly 
Cavaliers. In tones of unaccustomed moderation 
he addressed them from the Churchyard pulpit: — 

PRUDENT ADVICE. 

" Brethren in the Lord," he said, " consider well 
what ye do ; shall ye meet the servants of the Evil 
One, or shall ye leave them for a time to run their 
course. What is the power that Prince Rupert, 
that prince of robbers, brings against the people of 
the Lord ? It is full 1,200 men. Shall ye then, 
your small band of scarce six score musketeers, 
hope to make defence ? They have their cannon, 
ye have none. No walls compass the town round 
about, ye have no defence against the powers of 
Darkness that prevail. What then say ye ? Shall 
ye shed your blood for the Lord's sake, or shall ye 
rather, abiding the time of the Most High, march 
away with all your arms, even to the hazard of the 
spoiling of your goods? I would that ye left all 
in the service of the Lord. I would that ye looked 
to what is rational and safe." 

Consistent with the advice he had given his 
flock, the minister retired from Birmingham until 
Rupert's departure, but his flock declined to follow 
so prudent an example, declaring they would not 
desert the Lord's cause. Hundreds hurried to the 
entrance of the town, men, women, and even chil- 
dren, resolved to spend that Easter Sabbath in 
erecting barricades. Trunks of trees, stones. 



A FIGHT FOR LICHFIELD. 203 

planks, waggons, barrels, were built into a huge 
wall across the deep hollow way between Camp 
Hill and Derritend. Behind the barricade 100 
musketeers took up a position, supported by a troop 
of horse. 

THE ROBBER PRINCE. 

Noon had scarcely passed when shouts from the 
sentinels on the hill tops announced Rupert's 
approach. Climbing to the top of the barricade, 
the citizens recognised the Robber Prince, clad in 
scarlet coat, and blue velvet breeches, his boyish 
face set in the background of a broad-brimmed 
felt hat, adorned with ostrich feathers. A rich 
lace collar overspread his shoulders, and golden 
spurs glittered on the heels of his tall riding boots. 
The ride from Henley over the Common, and down 
the hill from Shirley, had exhilarated his spirits. 
Nothing on the journey had occurred to ruffle him, 
and he anticipated no resistance on the part of the 
townspeople. Accordingly he instructed his 
trumpet to advance to the barricade and promise 
the citizens forgiveness for their past rudeness to 
the King, and safety from molestation during his 
residence in the town, on condition that they pro- 
vided him with provender and food. But the 
citizens fired upon his messenger. The choleric 
Prince immediately commanded his gunners to 
unlimber their drakes and sackers and bombard the 
barricade, after which he twice endeavoured to 
carry the defences, and twice his soldiers recoiled. 
The Birmingham men unfurled the Banner of 
Parliament, and mocked their assailants as they 
fired upon them, calling them " devilish cavaliers," 
and cursed dogs. Assaults upon the barricade 
were a mere waste of life, but scanning the fighting 



204 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

ground tlie Prince conceived another plan, and 
ordered his troopers to leap the hedges that parted 
the meadows from the town. The order had scarce 
left his lips when his horsemen were over the 
hedges attacking the defenders upon the town side 
of the barricade, crying in vindictive exultation, 
"Where is your God, Lord Brooke, now?" "See 
you rebels, how God now fights against you." At 
their head Lord Denbigh charged, singing Cavalier 
songs. They rode down women and children alike, 
tarrying not for plunder, but galloping through 
the streets, and firing through windows and doors. 
The old ostler at the Swan hurried to thci gate, and 
received a bullet in his chest; worthy Doctor 
Tillam was shot upon his own door step ; while 
cries were raised for Mr. Roberts. On the Lich- 
field Road Captain Greaves awaited their approach, 
and delivered a well-timed charge that threw them 
into momentarj^ confusion. Cavaliers and Round- 
heads became mixed ; a Puritan pole axe fatally 
wounded Lord Denbigh; Lord Digby and Sir 
William Ayres were wounded, and dismounted; 
and a Cavalier bullet struck Captain Greaves in 
the face, but after the onset Greaves galloped back 
to Lichfield, leaving the Cavaliers masters of the 
town. 

The Prince had already established his head- 
quarters at the Ship Inn, where he instituted a 
" Liberty Exchange," receiving various sums from 
2d. to £1 and upwards, as ransom money. He 
mulcted Thomas Peake, a miser, of £1,500, and 
altogether collected about £4,000 in cash, besides 
large quantities of boots, stockings, clothings, arms 
and ammunition ; and burned Mr. Porter's foundry 
that had supplied pikes and swords to the Parlia- 
mentary army. 



A FIGHT FOK LICHFIELD. 205 

Amid the smoke of bixrning liouses and the 
muttered execrations of tke citizens the Cavalier 
marched towards Stafford -^^e- Hastings joine^ 
them, not to accompany them to Lichfield, but to 
receive the Prince's commands. . ^ , , • 

Eupert manifested no disposition to ^^f er-esti- 
mate the difficulties in the way of a successful siege. 
Mter Hopton Heath the P-l-^^-^'^^-^^^^Close' 
siderably strengthened the g/"-^^°\f ,,^? Slest 
placing it under the command of one of their ablest 
Serl Colonel Russell, an officer who enjoyed a 
certain reputation as a stern disciplmaTian, a 
resourceful commander, and a faithful partisan, of 
absoWe rectitude. By means of spies Hastings 
had ascertained that every possible endeavour had 
been made to render the fortress impregnable. 

Before setting out from Oxford Rupert decided 
that the place lould only be captured by a mine 
and an asLnlt at the breach, and communicated his 
opinion to Hastings by letter. He had no sappers ; 

HASTINGS COLLIERS. 

his effective arm was cavalry; -^ his Jnf^ry 
consisted of undrilled recruits. Hi» letter tnere 

The following letter explains how successfully he 

completed liis task : — 

" Mav it t)lease yovir Highness, — 

" Upon mv coming hither, having information 
from some I employed into the Close yesterday. 
I w"oteTor some luch miners from Norton or Can- 
noZor thereabout., as your Hig^iness -uW have 
who are as skilful as any, and fifty m number. 



206 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

conceive them sufficient, but if you please I will 
send for 100 more to-morrow night; they are 
within seven miles of Lichfield, and shall be within 
a mile of the town by ten o'clock this morning, at 
which hour I will attend your Highness, with 
quarters made, whither shall be brought provisions 
of all sorts, or anything else you will command. 

" Your Highness' faithful servant, 

"Henry Hastings." 

Tamworth, seven o'clock Saturday morning. 

On April 8th, the watchmen of the Close observed 
Rupert's approach, upon which orders were issued 
for the evacuation of the City, which the Prince at 
once occupied. By the 10th he completed the 
investment of the Close. Ten days after his 
arrival he had drained the moat, besides construct- 
ing two bridges across the dry bed. A letter of one 
of the besieged supplies an interesting account of 

A roundhead's letter. 

his procedure : — " All the news I can write is how 
bravely our men behaved at Lichfield in the Close 
against Rupert. He hath fought against it ever 
since the 10th, and can do no good. He lay shoot- 
ing against it five days and could not make a 
breach, whereupon he caused the colliers to come in 
with their pickaxes to undermine it. So he sent 
for all the ladders within eighteen miles, intending 
to scale. But in the scaling our men killed eight 
of his men, and took one, which they hanged three 
yards from the wall like a sign, and bid Rupert 
shoot him down. Then Rupert swore : ' Damn 
him, he would not give one man quarter.' But 
next day he sent a trumpeter to the Close, to know 
if they would yield on quarter. Then our men did 



A FIGHT FOR LICHFIELD. 207 

ring tlie bells in defiance. Since I writ this letter, 
I hear that Rupert is slain, but I do not know the 
certainty of it." 

THE BREACH. 

Unfortunately for the garrison, the rumour of 
E/Upert's death proved unfounded. The obstinacy 
of the defence indeed urged him to increased 
activity. Under his direction the rock and water 
were eventually overcome, and five bags of powder 
deposited in the mine. But Russell had likewise 
excavated a mine, and when the explosion occurred 
the opposing combatants met in the breach. In 
the dust and smoke, the Cavaliers encountered so 
deadly a reception as to cause them to stagger. 
Their leader, Colonel Usher, with some of their 
superior officers, fell mortally wounded. Even 
under Rupert's eye, they refused to cross the 
barrier. The assault at the breach had failed. 

Again Rupert's guns belched fire. For upwards 
of an hour the battered town sustained their 
murderous hail, until the limit of human endurance 
had been reached, and amid the exultant cheers of 
the assailants the white flag was hoisted on the 
Cathedral tower. 

A BRAVE MISSIONS'. 

Rupert commissioned Hastings to enter the Close 
for the purpose of negotiating the terms of capitu- 
lation. In the darkness he passed through the 
breach, striding over the battered wreckage, and 
avoiding the falling stones. During the siege 
operations his capture would have caused greater 
satisfaction than that of any other Royalist leader. 
It would have been triumphantly announced to 
Parliament, whose pains and penalties he had 
defied. 



208 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE, 

Amid tlie flickering lights of LicKfield City 
Rupert awaited his return, and waited in vain. He 
chafed and swore, but Hastings lingered. At 
length he commanded the gunners to resume the 
bombardment, and amid their thunders, Hastings 
arranged the terms of surrender. At break of day 
he recrossed the breach, accompanied by hostages. 

At Oxford afterwards the terms he granted to the 
garrison were pronounced too lenient, but Hastings 
had granted them, Rupert had confirmed them, and 
accordingly the King allowed them. 

SACRILEGE. 

The Cavaliers found the Cathedral a scene of 
indescribable desolation. The Roundheads had 
destroyed the altar; defaced the statuary; and 
rifled the tombs in search of plunder ; besides using 
the great church as a place of amusement. It had 
been their practice to dress a calf in cannonicals, 
and mockingly baptise it at the font ; and to hunt 
cats through the aisles for the enjoyment of the 
echoes. 

Rupert was not permitted to remain at Lichfield 
or to continue his journey into Yorkshire. A 
peremptory mandate from the King instructed him 
to return to Oxford, leaving Colonel Bagot governor 
of the Close, and Henry Hastings commander of all 
forces in the neighbourhood. 



QUEEN AND CONVOY. 
CHAPTER X. 
febrijaiiy to july, 1643. 
queen's landing. 

THE Queen's return from Holland in Feb- 
ruary infused into the Cavalier party a warm 
glow of ardent loyalty to the Royal House, correct- 
ing tlie laxity of interest that had crept into its 
ranks, in consequence of the vacillating policy of 
the King, and temporarily healing the dissensions 
of rival commanders. It gave the forces of the 
North and North Midlands a picturesque figure 
head, and a name they were proud to adopt, as an 
inspiring battle cry. It was Epic of the Civil War. 
The prologue recalled the heroic sufferings of an 
exiled Queen in foreign lands, scheming amid the 
intrigues of the French Court, pleading with the 
reluctant Prince of Orange, and negotiating with 
the discourteous burghers of the Dutch cities, in 
the interest of a beloved husband, from whose 
affectionate companionship the stern progress of a 
national rebellion had banished her, a Queen 
pawning her pearls and rubies, her personal 
treasures, and by hard struggling with adverse 
fate, successfully raising two millions sterling, to 
15 



210 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

purchase munitions of war for the defence of that 
husband's crown. 

Nay more a Queen against whose life and liberty 
the Parliament of England had pronounced the 
ban of impeachment. 

The drama opened with startling vividness. 
While the Parliamentary Navy scoured the 
Northern Sea to obstruct her passage, like a Storm 
Queen she crossed the ocean, escorted by a Dutch 
naval squadron commanded by Yan Tromp, the 
most celebrated Admiral of his time, and bringing 
with her eleven transport ships laden with muni- 
tions of war. Under the protection of Van 
Tromp's guns she landed at Burlington, amid the 
acclamation of a thousand Cavaliers assembled on 
the beach to bid her welcome home. But never 
English Queen before or after received so dismal a 
greeting, for in the night, when she lay sleeping 
m her bed, and the Dutch ships had withdrawn to 
sea, Admiral Batten with his Parliamentary 
squadron anchored in the bay, and ruthlessly 
bombarded her lodging, driving her half clad, and 
bare footed, into the neighbouring fields to seek a 
shelter under a hedge bank, where the cannon balls 
still ploughed the ground, bespattering her person 
with mud. Yet several days later, looking through 
a window in her lodging, she noticed a number of 
her soldiers leading a culprit to the gallows, and 
on inquiry ascertaining him to be one of Batten's 
captains, the very man who had deliberately 
pointed his guns at her window, she ordered his 
release, a Queenly act that became her better than 
her crown. Mere smiles or frowns upon the 
changeful face of fortune are powerless to qualify 
the gracious operations of a Royal spirit, too high 
to be vindictive, and high enough to forgive. 



QUEEN AND CONVOY. 211 



HER RECEPTION. 



Batten's unmanly brutality served the Queen's 
cause by awakening a commiserent loyalty in the 
breasts of Yorkshire gentlemen unprecedented in 
English history. They resented the action of 
Parliament through its responsible officer, in sub- 
jecting the highest lady of the realm to treatment 
so cowardly, stoutly asserting that the habitual 
deference accorded to her sex should have protected 
her from an outrage so unpardonable ; while her 
responsive and womanly clemency appealed to 
their chivalrous impulses, moving them to 
spontaneous vows of fidelity. 

Animosities and feuds that had divided county 
families for many years were allowed to lapse into 
temporary forgetfulness in her presence. Even 
persons who from conscientious motives dis- 
approved of her design, softened at the thought of 
the sufferings through which she had passed with 
noble courage, and accounted themselves honoured 
if any chance occasion permitted them the oppor- 
tunity to render her any personal service. The 
stoutest and manliest leaders of the Roundhead 
party frankly admitted their condemnation of the 
ruffianly affair at Burlington, as an offence against 
womanhood. Sir Thomas Fairfax, the local leader 
of the Parliamentary forces, and one of the small 
band of prominent officers who emerged from the 
mid scenes of the Civil War with clean hands, 
ventured to offer her Majesty, in spite of 
Parliamentary impeachment, the service of his 
troops to conduct her safely to York; and had 
she accepted so uncongenial an offer would un- 
doubtedly have carried out his undertaking in the 
spirit of an English gentleman. 



212 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

But the Queen needed no alien protection, for 
hundreds of northern gentlemen gathered in the 
park round Boynton Hall eager to enroll themselves 
m her bodyguard, and when the Marquis of 
Montrose arrived to conduct her to the headquarters 
of the Earl of JSTewcastle, his command immediately 
swelled to upwards of 2,000 gallant horsemen, 
gaily apparelled, and equipped at their own 
expense. 

The Queenly benignity that moved Her Majesty 
to pardon Batten's Captain, did not forsake her 
during her four months' reign in Yorkshire. Not- 
withstanding her foreign birth and education, and 
her attachment to the Roman faith, by tactful 
flattery, and dignified condescensions, she 
established her supremacy; cajolling the stately 
Earl into victorious activity by the promise of a 
Marquisate, inflaming the romantic loyalty of the 
Marquis of Montrose, and beguiling the Holthams, 
father and son, who had shut the gates of Hull in 
the King's face, from their allegiance to the Par- 
liament. The very joy of sovereignty exhilarated 
her spirits. After the cold atmosphere of neglect 
in her native France, and the offensive boorishness 
of the Dutch merchants, the fervent loyalty of her 
English subjects, gladdened her heart, and 
increased her confidence in the ultimate triumph 
of the E/oyal Cause. She had become again in 
reality the English Queen. Her forces held the 
northern counties, with the exception of the 
manufacturing towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire. 
From Newark to Newcastle no Roundhead force 
was sufficiently strong to dispute her author itj^ 

A DISMAL PROSPECT. 

It is no wonder that she lingered in her northern 
capital contemplating her journey southward with 



QUEEN AND CONVOY. 213 

some temerity. Slie had courageously rebuked 
her ladies' tears during her voyage over the stormy 
ocean, bidding them remember that a Queen of 
England might not be drowned ; she had inspired 
her army with the belief that her presence insured 
victory, but in the loneliness of her private chamber 
seasons of dejection sometimes visited her, as she 
considered on the outstretched map, the great 
crescent of hostile territory that separated her from 
her desired destination. The eastern maritime 
and midland counties were overawed by Essex's 
army; a rebel garrison under Colonel Hutchinson 
held Nottingham Castle ; Lord Grrey of Groby 
still maintained his influence at Leicester; Gell's 
troopers dominated Derbyshire ; and Cromwell 
hovered about the neighbourhood of Belvoir Castle 
and Nottingham, eager to block her advance. 
Neither could her entreaties prevail upon the 
Marquis to extend his operations beyond Newark. 
But the welcome news of the capture of Lichfield 
Close decided her to commence her journey, and 
before the end of June she reached Newark in 
safety, from which toAvn she wrote the King : — 

" That his messenger Lord Saville had arrived, 
who found her ready to go away, staying but for 
one thing, for which you may well pardon me two 
days' stop, it is to have Hull and Lincoln. Young 
Holtham having been put in prison, by order of 
Parliament, is escaped and has sent to the Marquis 
of Newcastle, that he should cast himself into his 
arms, and that Lincoln should be rendered. Young 
Holtham hath gone to his father and the Marquis 
waits for your snswer. I think that I shall go 
hence on Friday or Saturday. I shall sleep at 
Weston, and from thence to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 
where we will resolve which way to take, and I will 



214 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

stay there a day, because the march of the day 
before will have been somewhat great, and also to 
learn how the enemy marches ; all the forces of 
Nottingham at present being gone towards 
Leicester and Derby, which makes ns believe that 
they intend to intercept onr passage. As soon as 
we have resolved I will let yon know. Have a care 
that no troops of Essex incommode us." 

COURT AT NEWARK. 

Her Majesty established a brilliant court at 
Newark. After the capture of the town, the 
Marquis of Newcastle had appointed his cousin 
young Charles Cavendish to the governorship; a 
selection that highly gratified the Lincolnshire 
gentry, who esteemed him both on account of his 
relationship to Newcastle, and of his great bravery ; 
indeed, no Cavalier of the expedition enjoyed a 
wider popularity. When the Queen, with whom 
he was a great favourite, would have carried him 
to Oxford, the Newarkers petitioned her to allow 
him to remain. Amongst the distinguished 
Cavaliers who frequented the Court may be 
instanced the Marquis of Montrose, Robert Legge, 
Harry Jermyn, Gerald, Sir Alexander Lesley, and 
Henry Hastings, all stout fighting men as well ac 
courtiers, who composed her Majesty's council 
The ladies of Lincolnshire heartily embraced the 
opportunity of the Royal visit to wait upon the 
Queen, and were received graciously. In ordinary 
circumstances many of them would have been 
denied audience by court officialism, but under the 
prevailing conditions of Royal necessity, not pride 
of birth, or social rank, but generous devotion and 
cheerful self-sacrifice, attracted her Majesty's 
approving smile. In the fulness of their satisfac- 



QUEEN AND CONVOY. 215 

tion they implored her to remain with them longer, 
but she naively informed them that she was under 
the command of the King to proceed. 

METHOD OF ADVANCE. 

The Council discussed long and anxiously the 
serious question, whether it would be desirable for 
the Queen and convoy to journey in company, or 
apart. The magnitude of the Queen's train, as 
her troopers described the convoy, had perceptibly 
diminished since leaving Burlington, when 250 
wagons had been required to carry the contents of 
her transport ships. After the munificent liberality 
of the Marquis of Newcastle, that had expressed 
itself in arming whole regiments at his own 
personal expense, for the King's service, the Queen 
had willingly assented, when he had begged for 
supplies, and her own army had required equip- 
ment; yet notwithstanding these deductions 150 
loaded wagons remained. Prudential methods are 
always imperative in war, but in the Queen's 
present expedition special precautions were 
necessary. Miscalculation of possible hostile 
opposition would have involved her personal peril, 
and the ruin of the King's army. But indignant 
solicitude for her Majesty's personal safety out- 
weighed every other consideration before the 
Council. Its members could not forget that 
Parliament had impeached her, as they did 
Strafford, in her case " for assisting her husband 
the King with arms and ammunition in the 
prosecution of the war against them." The brutal 
incident at Burlington had illustrated the unmer- 
ciful treatment she would be likely to receive at 
their hands in the event of her capture. It was 
accordingly determined that the supreme thought 



216 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

of the Council must be tlie preservation of her 
Majesty's personal safety. It was felt that whilst 
the combined army constituted a formidable escort, 
yet in the event of attack the wagons would prove 
an inconvenient encumbrance, and that even after 
the assignment of 1,000 foot and several troops of 
horse to the duty of guarding the convoy, the army, 
animated by an unconquerable chivalry, and 
charged with the single task of protecting the object 
of its devotion, would still be able to overcome any 
opposition the Derby and Leicester forces recruited 
from IS^ottingham would be able to offer. 

In accordance with this view, the care of the 
convoy was committed to Henry Hastings, who 
already held the King's commission as Colonel- 
General of the Midlands ; with instructions to keep 
the route clear over which the Queen would travel, 
and to proceed at an uniform pace of about tAvo 
days' journey in advance of the Royal escort. 



Hastings accepted the commission with deliber- 
ate resolution, fully appreciating the portentous 
nature of his task. From a man of his high strung 
nervous temperament, and passionate loyalty and 
familiarity with the strength and depositions of the 
enemy's forces in the counties to be traversed, such 
a task promised the exactment of a sleepless vigil- 
ance of about a fortnight's duration, until both 
Queen and convoy reached their several destina- 
tions. Undoubtedly the Castles of Belvoir, Ashby- 
de-la-Zouch, and Tamworth, and Lichfield Close 
dominated the proposed route, but many localities 
offered facilities for hostile attack. While others 
rode gallantly in gay attendance on their Eoyal 
mistress through the stages of the journey, confi- 



QUEEN AND CONVOY. 217 

dent ill the security of numbers, it would be his 
duty to advance forward of their progress, con- 
trolling and directing a picked corps of expert 
scouts, who knew the turnpikes and by-lanes of the 
several counties almost as familiarly as a farmer 
knows his fields ; despatching patrols in every 
direction ; and skirmishing with any advanced 
posts of the enemy that might be encountered. No 
commander in the Royal army could boast a choicer 
company of horsemen adapted to such a service 

THE BLUE COATS. 

than he, a company consisting of three troops, with 
a numerical strength of upwards of one hundred, 
and known from Edge Hill to Naseby as Hastings' 
Blue Coats. These men invariably accompanied 
their Colonel on his most hazardous expeditions, 
and their fidelity and sagacity extricated him in 
many a perilous dilemma. He had drafted them 
into a separate corps from various troops, because 
of their excellent intelligence and superb horse- 
manship, had armed them to the teeth with the 
costliest weapons in the Castle arsenal; clothed 
them in stout blue cloth coats, overlaid and under- 
laid with leather in vulnerable parts; and 
mounted them upon the fleetest horses procurable. 
Each man understood the general purpose of his 
commander, and could be relied upon to intelli- 
gently execute his orders. Except in military 
pageants they carried no banner or bannerets, and 
affected no formation, but obeyed, and even antici- 
pated, their leader's wishes, as the lithesome limbs 
of an athlete respond to his will. In obedience 
exact, in physique well formed, and in judgment 
shrewd, they constituted the mind and hand of the 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch garrison. The Council did not 



218 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

attempt to fix a definite route for the convoy, 
leaving Hastings discretionary powers ; it being 
considered that the condition of the roads, as well 
as the latest information about the depositions of 
the Roundhead forces, would naturally affect his 
plans. They simply named the destination, 
stipulating that it must be Banbury or Oxford. 

THE CONVOY STARTS. 

After a careful inspection of horses, harness, and 
vehicles, on the first day of July, with a mighty 
cracking of whips, and amid the cheers of the loyal 
ISTewarkers, the convoy started. The Queen, her 
face suifused with smiles, and her heart palpitating 
with anxious interest, surrounded by a bevy of 
ladies, and waving her dainty handkerchief in 
token of her good wishes, watched her long train of 
waggons until it became lost in the blue mists of 
the horizon. For four long months she had 
retained the precious waggons under her own 
immediate care. They were the product of twelve 
weary months of exile, and had been purchased 
with her jewels and her tears ; she had grown to 
regard them as the means by which her husband 
would recover his Kingly power; and they were 
gone, but in the care of a leal friend and faithful 
knight, who would, if needs be, shed his blood in 
their defence. 

THE ROYAL JOURNEY. 

Three days later, after granting a farewell audi- 
ence to the noble Marquis of Montrose, afterwards 
the hero of that meteoric campaign in Scotland that 
filled the King's heart with delusive hopes, in the 
sunset of his fortunes ; and bidding good-bye to her 
reluctant sympathisers in Lincolnshire, the Queen 



QUEEN AND CONVOY. 219 

commenced tlie first stage of her journey, reaching 
the Castle of Ashby-de-la-Zouch on July 6th. Her 
Majesty's high-minded clemency had already com- 
pelled the admiration of the Yorkshire people; 
her amiability had stirred the enthusiasm of the 
Lincolnshire Royalists ; and her courageous spirit 
was about to capture the devotion of the Mid- 
landers. From Newark to Stratford-on-Avon her 
progress became a triumph. At the various halting 
places loving supporters presented themselves to 
do homage, and to offer welcome contributions of 
the plate and money to the war exchequer. 

Petite and charming in person, condescending 
and gracious in deportment, yet Royal in mien, her 
presence with the army rendered it invincible. 
Sometimes she journeyed in her coach, sometimes 
she rode on horseback, but always surrounded by 
her guards, a selected escort, composed of gentle- 
men of rank and birth, commanded by Harry 
Jermyn. In her own words to the King, she 
carried with her 3,000 foot and thirty companies of 
horse and dragoons (from which, however, a draft 
of fully 1,200 had been deducted for the convoy), 
six pieces of cannon, and two mortars. Sir 
Alexander Lesley commanded the foot under 
Jermyn, Gerald the horse, and Robert Legge the 
artillery, while her extremely diligent she Majesty 
generalissimo held the chief authority over all. 
With rythmic movement the great cavalcade 
advanced through the villages and towns. Its 
silken bannerets fluttered, and its bright accoutre- 
ments glittered in the summer sunshine, giving the 
country people a passing glimpse of Royalty in its 
native stateliness. 

But if a mere vision of Royalty impressed spec- 
tators, the Queen's personal intercourse with her 



220 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

soldiers inspired them with emotional devotion. 
She would eat her meals in their presence ; accord 
a smile of recognition to the troopers ; and deign 
to converse with the officers. The meanest trooper 
would have freely laid do\\Ti his life to defend her. 
The advance guard trotted by the mile stones with 
triumphant songs upon their lips, in which they 
lampooned their rebel foemen,and proclaimed their 
own invincibility. One of the early Cavalier lays 
composed before the fight at Edge Hill furnishes an 
example of the strong rhythm and forceful metre of 
their songs. It was a great favourite during the 
Queen's progress. 

"God save the King, the Queen, the Prince also, 
With all loyal subjects, both high, and both low ; 
The Roundheads can pray for themselves, we know, 
Which nobody can deny. 

Plague take Pym and all his peers, 
Huzzah for Prince Rupert and his Cavaliers ; 
When they come here, these hounds will have fears 
Which nobody can deny. 

God sarve Prince Rupert, and Maurice withal, 
For they gave the Roundheads a great downfall. 
And knocked the noddles against Worcester wall. 
Which nobody can deny." 

QUEEN AT ASHBY. 

At the great Gateway of Ashby-de-la-Zouch the 
Golden Earl, and his son Henry, received the 
Queen. The apartments once occupied by Mary 
Queen of Scots had been prepared for her use, 
because of their situation in the Castle proper, and 
of the privacy and protection they would afford. 
The army encamped in and about the town. The 
first half of the journey had now been completed 



QUEEN AND CONVOY. 221 

without misadventure ; it remained for her Majesty 
to settle the route for the remaining portion. 
Hastings was able to give her satisfactory assur- 
ances about the convoy. It had already passed 
with safety through the more hazardous localities. 
No movement had been made by Lord Grey and Sir 
John Gell to intercept it; indeed, Grey hiul mani- 
fested a disposition to retire to the neighbourhood 
of Derby, with the object of keeping in close touch 
with Gell, in accordance with his usual policy of 
timerity in the handling of armed forces. Hastings 
had calculated upon turning the presence of the 
Royal army to account for the plunder of Derby, 
as a means of avenging the insults of Gell, and 
enriching the King's revenue. But the concentra- 
tion of the Leicester and Derby forces in and 
around the town, together with their re-enforce- 
ment by a Nottingham contingent, had thwarted 
his design. An attack upon Derby had become 
plainly impracticable. The army had set out from 
Newark under the impression that resistance would 
be encountered on the march to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 
and the Queen herself ardently desired to meet her 
husband, crowned with a wreath of victory, gained 
in some gallant fight with the enemy; but the 
King's orders were peremptory. Urged by solici- 
tude for his wife's personal safety, and yearning 
for her companionship, in repeated messages he 
implored her to proceed without delay to Oxford. 
It was evident that any offensive operations must 
be conducted in the direct route, and under the 
circumstances Burton-on-Trent, a persistently 
unfriendly town, invited attention. From the out- 
break of the war Hastings had contemplated the 
plunder of that town, but had been prevented from 
putting his purpose into execution by his difficul- 



222 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

ties at Lichfield. Her Majesty accordingly decided 
to advance her army against Burton, whilst 
Hastings, taking his leave, hastened after the 
convoy. 

THE PLUNDER OF BURTON. 

The defences of Burton were not formidable, but 
the soldiers of the garrison were reputed to be stout 
fighters, and the Governor, Colonel Houghton, an 
able commander. The Cavaliers hailed the pros- 
pect of a fight. The attack proved short, deadly, 
and successful. Nehemiah Wellington describes 
the assault in his collection of memorials, and after 
allowing for his habitual disregard of chronological 
accuracy, and his partisan bias, his account may be 
accepted as fairly reliable. 

" It is creditably informed that the Queen's 
army, a most filthy crew, in her march to Oxford, 
made it their care to free the inhabitants of Burton- 
on-Trent, who were generally well affected, to Par- 
liament, and sent 27 colours of foot and about 17 
colours of horse, to do execution on the Parliament- 
ary forces residing there. They faced it July 13th 
first with their horse, about break of day, who were 
forced to retreat, but after about five or six o'clock 
returned with their foot. Then the service grew 
very hot, the town having been twice summoned 
by a trumpeter to yield, but bravely resolved to 
fight it out, which they did till six o'clock at night. 
But at last our men being weary with the whole 
day's service, and oppressed by an over daring 
multitude of the enemy, they were driven from 
their guards, and soon left the town. Brave 
Colonel Houghton, his lieutenant Colonel Saunders, 
Captain Watson, and divers other commanders, all 
men never enough to be honoured, after quarter 



QUEEN AXD CONVOY. 223 

demanded, were grievously wounded and killed. 
Our foot, after quarter promised, they put up in the 
tower of the church, where the bells hanged, and 
then blew up the tower with gvmpowder, the Queen 
causing the chief master gunner to be brought 
before her, and killed or cut to pieces before her 
face. They tied some men back to back, and threw 
them into the Trent. Of the towns people they 
wounded many, they killed many, they plundered 
all ; pillaged the town of all that was worth carry- 
ing away, and thev set the whole town on fire and 
left it." 

Leaving Burton- on-Trent desolate and wrecked 
behind, the Queen set out for Walsall, a friendly 
town under the authority of Tutbury, and Dudley 
Castles, where she passed a night, lodging in a 
commodious house that afterwards became a hostel, 
known as the E-ed Lion Inn. The following day, 
by a detour, she avoided the rebellious atmosphere 
of Birmingham, and reached King's Norton on the 
8th in safety. 

Her Majesty had now entered the zone of the 
King's supremacy, and the dangers of her journey 
were at length over and passed. Henceforth there 
remained a delightful excursion through the green 
lanes of Warwickshire to Stratford-on-Avon. 

A COMPLETED TASK. 

By that time the convoy was nearing Banbury. 
A letter from Edwarfd Nicholas, the King's 
secretary, dated Oxford, July 10th, refers to its 
approaching arrival. " The munitions of war will 
be at Banbury this night, there are to come with it 
1,000 foot and five troops of horse, besides those of 
Lincolnshire, Rutland, and Colonel Hastings, 
which are to be dismissed (viz., relieved), and sent 



224 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

back to their quarters from Banbury." Brave 
Henry Hastings, and his intrepid Blue Coats, bad 
accomplished their anxious task, in ten arduous 
days. Hitherto Hastings' efforts bad proved 
uniformly successful. In the face of dishearten- 
ing difficulties, he had recovered the Leicester town 
magazine ; be had established the King's authority 
in Belvoir, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Tamworth, and 
Tutbury Castles ; he had driven the Roundhead 
horse in wild confusion from Hopton Heath, and 
wrested Lichfield Close from the possession of one 
of the sturdiest officers of the Parliamentary 
service ; and lastly he had by skilful management 
of the convoy enabled the King to equip his un- 
armed soldiery at Oxford. Even Cromwell bears 
testimony to his indefatigable energy in his letter 
of May 3rd to the Committee of Lincolnshire, " My 
Lord Grey hath now again failed me of the rendez- 
vous at Stamford, notwithstanding that both he and 
I received letters from his Excellency, command- 
ing us both to meet, and together with Sir John 
Gell and the Nottingham forces to join with you. 
My Lord Grey sent Sir Edward Hartopp to me, to 
let me know that he could not meet me at Stamford, 
according to our agreement, fearing the exposing 
of Leicester to the forces of Mr. Hastings, and 
some other troopers drawing that way. 

" Believe it, it were better in my poor opinion, 
Leicester were not, than that there should not be 
found an immediate taking of the field by our 
forces, to accomplish the common ends. Wherein 
I shall deal freely with him, when I meet him, as 
vou can desire. I perceive Ashby sticks much with 
him." 

He may have been unconscious of it, at the time 
he received congratulations of his brother Cavaliers 



QUEEN AND CONVOY. 225 

at Banbury ; but bis f aitbf ul services bad alreaxly 
won for bim tbe King's gratitude, and decided bis 
Majesty to confer upon bim tbe exceptional reward 
of a peerage. 

SLIPPERY RUPERT. 

Meanwbile Prince Eupert bad carried out bis 
instructions witb brilliant ability. After tbe 
Queen's departure from York, tbe King bad 
ordered bim to keep Essex employed m tbe south, 
and by a series of well-planned manoeuvres be bad 
fulfilled bis task. On bearing of bis Royal aunt s 
arrival in tbe vicinity of Stratford-on-Avon, be 
^ave Essex tbe slip at Brickbill, galloping witb bis 
Cavaliers into tbat town and establisbmg bimselt 
and bis staff at tbe Red Horse Inn to await ber 
coming. 

THE QUEEN AT STRATFORD. 

Her met ber Majesty outside tbe town, receiving 
an affectionate greeting, and tbe combined army 
marcbed into Stratford, " according to Sir William 
Dugdale's diary on July lOtb," witb banners flymg, 
and a park of artillery, amid tbe entbusiastic 
acclamations of tbe townspeople. Several fine 
mansions were available for tbe Queen's accommo- 
dation, Clopton House and Cbarlcote Hall, for 
example ; but it is significant tbat sbe elected to 
lodge in Sbakespeare's bouse. Tbe poet's daugbter, 
Mrs. Hall, tben a widow, still resided tbere, and 
for tbree days ber Majesty accepted ber Puritan 
bospitality. New Place was a fitting lodging for 
tbe wife of a sovereign, wbo loved books and art, 
and wbo bad stood beside bis fatber's cbair in boy- 
bood, watcbing tbe immortal poet take part in tbe 
representation of bis dramas for tbe King's amuse- 

16 



226 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

ment. Shakespeare had lain sleeping for a quarter 
of a century and more, in the glorious fane beside 
the rippling Avon ; but the table at which he 
penned King Lear, the chairs on which he had sat, 
and the books he had loved to finger, remained still 
in the old home ; and it is pleasant to contemplate 
the charming Queen, wandering in the cool of 
eventide in the garden, by the mulberry tree, 
plucking the flowers that recalled Ophelia's mad 
song. With fetes and gaiety the Cavaliers 
celebrated the Queen's arrival. She was the 
heroine of the passing hour, the object of 
extravagant congratulation, and enthusiasm spread 
to classic Oxford, where medals were struck in her 
honour, and the University poets composed 
commemorative songs. 

" When gallant Glanville stoutly stood, 
And stopped the gap up with his blood ; 
When Hopton led his Cornish Band, 
Where the sly Conqueror durst not stand, 
We knew the Queen was nigh at hand. 

When great Newcastle so came forth. 
As in nine days he scoured the North, 
When Fairfax's perfidious force, 
Was shrunk to five invisible horse, 
When none but Lady — staid to fight, 
We knew our Queen was come in sight. 

When with Carnarvon who still hit. 
With his keen blade and keener wit. 
Stood Wilmot, Bryon, Crawford, who 
Struck yesterday a glorious blow, 
When Waller could but bleed and fret, 
Then, then the sacred couple met. " 



QUEEN AND CONVOY. 227 

Tliere remained but that meeting the sacred couple, 
long deferred, but the consummation of all the 
Queen's sufferings and triumphs. The King 
waited at the head of his troops upon the field of 
Edge Hill, his first battlefield, and as he claimed 
his first victory, to receive his wife, and on her 
arrival led her to Sir Thomas Pipe's mansion at 
Wroxton. It was the last scene of the epic of the 
war. 



DISASTEOrS NASEBY. 
CHAPTER XI. 

JULY 1643 TO JUNE 1645. 
A DISMAL ADVENTURE. 

THE successful conveyance of the convoy to 
Banbury may be regarded as tiie exploit that 
marked the culmination of Hastings' military 
career. Hitherto his exertions in the King's 
interest had invariably accomplished his designs ; 
but within two months of his return to Ashby-de- 
la-Zouch, an urgent call from Lord Cappell reached! 
him, that resulted in the most dismal and painful 
adventure of the war. Lord Cappell had under- 
taken the task of raising supplies for the support of 
the Royalist garrisons of Lichfield Close, Tutbury, 
and Dudley Castles, by plundering Roundhead 
landowners and levying requisitions in Stafford- 
shire, and the neighbouring counties. To put a 
stop to his depredations Sir William Brueton 
advanced southward from Cheshire, and with his 
superior numbers practically surrounded him. A 
Parliamentary document states that '' from 



DISASTROUS NASEBY. 229 

Staffordshire it is certified that Sir William 
Brueton with forces from Cheshire, entered that 
county but now garrisoned by cow stealers — Lord 
Cappell and his forces. Cappell, brought to dis- 
tress, sent for Hastings to assist him, or he would 
be lost. Hastings made haste to respond, with a 
considerable force, but proved unsuccessful. 
Brueton understanding the design prepared for 
him, and placing an ambuscade behind the hedges, 
on his approach faced the Colonel with his whole 
force of horse. After skirmishing awhile he made 
a seeming retreat, which induced hot Hastings 
eagerly to pursue confident of victory. But on 
his passing the ambuscade Brueton wheeled round 
with his force, and with the assistance of the 
ambuscade put Hastings to absolute rout, with the 
loss of 100 of his horse slain and an equal number 
taken prisoners. He himself received a grievous 
wound, but with his ragged troops very nearly 
escaped, and fled to Tutbury Castle, closely pursued 
by his victorious foes to the very gates." 

Many of Hastings' ablest commanders were 
with him. Lord Grey of Groby with his Leicester- 
shire forces, and Major Freton with some 
Nottingham Dragoons, hastened to Tutbury for the 
purpose of assisting Brueton to make a complete 
investiture of the fortress. The allied Roundhead 
commanders at length caught their arch enemy in 
a trap. The sudden influx of so many troopers 
threatened to exhaust the food supply of the castle 
in less than a week, and no supplies could reach the 
garrison from Cappell' s cow catchers ; Hastings 
and most of his officers were incapacitated by their 
wounds, and no course appeared open to the 
besieged Royalists but surrender. A resolute 



230 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

Roundhead commander would liave certainly 
captured the castle. But the three leaders were 
divided in council. Major Freton declined to 
remain so far distant from his Nottingham base. 
Brueton and Grey had ample forces for the 
prosecution of a successful siege. It is true they 
were destitute of artillery, but hunger would have 
subdued the beleaguered Royalists within a space 
of a few days, without the assistance of a single 
gun. Freton' s Dragoons, however, retired in the 
night, and had scarcely passed into the darkness 
beyond the camp fires, before the Cheshire and 
Leicestershire forces began to pack their tents and 
baggage. When the day broke the watchmen on 
the castle battlements discovered that the army of 
besiegers had melted away like snow in summer, 
and hastened to communicate the joyful intelli- 
gence to their wounded leader. Hastings had 
never before suffered so severely at the hands of his 
enemies. The various apartments of the castle 
resembled wards of a modern infirmary; most 
of his officers were wounded ; and he himself 
suffered acute physical pain; but he at once 
decided to return to Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Taking 
with him every trooper who could sit his horse he 
set out. The appearance of his forces on their 
march through the villages of vStaffordshire and 
Derbyshire, awakened the derision of Roundhead 
sympathisers, and led them to contemptuously 
describe them as Hastings' ragged rascals. The 
greater number of them were bandaged, and their 
clothes were torn, but no hostile force dared to 
oppose their retreat. 

A contemporaneous letter describes the condition 
of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch garrison at this period. 



DISASTROUS NASEBY. 231 

ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH GARRISON. 

" Leicester, November 14tli, 1643. 
" Sir — Our forces are gone with the Derby 
Horse towards Ashby-de-la-Zouch ; but the 
enemy are very strong; and their works are 
good; they have vaults under the ground 
through which they can go from one fort to 
another at their pleasure. Provisions they have 
good store, hung beef round about their kitchen 
within, and have lately been killing and salting 
more. The Earl is in the garrison, but the Lord 
Loughborough is not here. They are as debased 
wicked wretches there, as if they had been raked 
out of hell, as we are informed by some that have 
come from thence. They have invented a new 
kind of compliment, for a kind of protestation ; 
and if they affirm or deny anything it is usual to 
do it with this saying — ' The Devil suck my soul 
through a tobacco pipe,' if such a thing be so or 
not so, in their ordinary speech. And this is no 
wonder, for they have three malignant priests 
there, such as will drink and roar as well as ever 
a cabb of them all, and end and begin one health 
after another, and swear and domineer, so as 
would make one's heart ache to hear the common 
people relate what they have heard of them. The 
cabb will cozen and cheat one another most 
wonderfully, and steal one another's horses, and 
ride out and sell them, and sometimes come 
again, sometimes run away, as if they were even 
at their wits' end ; there are also many Irish 
there, who have late made a new fort (Mount 
House), a very strong work, and it is called the 
Irish fort, who have been bold upon some 
clashing between them and those that profess to 
be Protestants in Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle. 



232 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

" The Irish rebels have told them to their faces 
that they fight for the old true Catholic religion, 
which is better than ours, and puts them in better 
condition than they that are heretic, and swear 
that if ever they be straitened in a siege they 
will burn the town down to the ground, but our 
forces have gone to try what they can do. 

''We are advertised that the Derby forces, 

consisting of four troops of horse, have united 

themselves to the Leicestershire forces, and that 

being engrossed into one body, they are now 

advancing to besiege Ashby-de-la-Zouch, which 

is one of the strongest and most considerable 

holds that the enemy hath, and the better to 

effect their enterprise, they are now fortifying a 

great house not far from it, a very defensible 

place of itself, which commands one of the 

chiefest passages thereunto." 

Immediately after his adventure in Staffordshire, 

Henry Hastings received his patent of nobility 

from Oxford, and elected to revive the barony of 

Loughborough, originally created by Queen Mary 

to reward the services of Edward Hastings, the 

third son of the first Earl, whose intercession 

procured the liberation of Earl Francis from the 

Tower of London. 

But while Lord Grey of Groby was collecting a 
combined force at Bradgate and fortifying Collorton 
with a design to assault the castle, the old Earl died 
at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. 

DEATH OF THE EARL. 

He had survived the golden age, and those other 
two noble personages, his gracious Countess, and 
Arthur Hildersham, who by their beautiful and 
high toned lives, had made it golden, to die amid 



DISASTROUS XASEBY. 233 

the clash of arms. Altlioug^li not unexpected, his 
death was generally deplored, and silenced for the 
time the dogs of war. 

In the strife of the w^ar he had taken no personal 
part, even the King had excused his attendance at 
the Oxford Parliament on account of his broken 
health, and the Roundheads suffered his obsequies 
to be conducted in peace. Hitherto the opposing 
leaders in Leicestershire, with the invidious 
exception of Sir John Gell, had fought out their 
quarrel like gentlemen. The brutal callousness of 
Cromwell had not commended itself to Grey or 
Hastings. They remembered that they had sat on 
the same judicial bench at Quarter Sessions ; had 
hunted with the same pack of hounds; had 
worshipped in the same churches ; and that the 
termination of the war would re-unite them in 
legislative duties and sporting pleasures. 

Brueton's victory over Lord Loughborough had 
revived Lord Grey's spirits, and decided him to 
make another attempt to capture the castle. His 
expedition had actually started, when the 
intelligence reached him of the Earl's death, and 
caused him to temporarily abandon his design. At 
Collorton the dull thud of the muffled bells of St. 
Helen's Church could be heard, and the drooping 
flag could be discerned. It was the last Hunting- 
don funeral from the castle, for when the next Earl 
died that historic fortress had become a desolate 
ruin. The feud between the Stamfords and the 
Huntingdons was bitter and irreconcilable, 
stimulated by personal resentment, and religious 
and political antagonism, but it is pleasant to 
remember the amenities that paid deferent homage 
to the sorrow of death, and the abiding memory of 
the mystic young Lord of Groby is the thought of 



234 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

tliat kindly disposition that prompted Mrs. 
Hutcliinson to describe him, as a young man of 
ridiculous good nature. 

After his father's funeral Lord Loughborough 
visited the King at Oxford; and Grey embraced 
the opportunity of his absence to deliver the 
postponed attack on the castle. About the 26th of 
November he advanced with a strong body of horse, 
driving back Loughborough's advance posts to the 
immediate vicinity of the fortress, and for the 
second time since the outbreak of the war Eound- 
head soldiers found their way into the town and 
plundered the houses. The garrison had several 
abattoirs in the town where carcases of beef were 
hanging. These the enemy placed in requisitioned 
wagons and conveyed to Collorton. 

The success of their attack, and the information 
they had gathered in the town of the disorder 
prevailing in the castle, stimulated Grey to renew 
his attack on the last day of December. Reinforce- 
ments were drawn to Collorton, and the lines 
advanced until the Collorton side of the town was 
blockaded. At this juncture the Roundheads con- 
fidently expected an early surrender. But to their 
great disappointment Lord Loughborough returned 
with his blue coats, and re-established discipline. 
Nevertheless the enemy daily became more aggres- 
sive, preventing those predatory expeditions upon 
which the Castle depended for its food supply. 

AN ATTACK OX THE CASTLE. 

Watching Collorton from the Keep on December 
31st, Loughborough noticed an unusual activity, 
and scouts returned to the Castle with information 
that preparations were in course for a determined 



DISASTROUS NASEBY. 



235 



assault. Loughborougli hacl little time for prepara- 
tion, and the attack was made with a preponderate 
force, that hopelessly outnumbered the Eoyalists. 
The Roundheads swarmed into Ashby. The old 
town had begun to taste the horrors of war. 
Nestling as it did under the Castle walls its resi- 
dents had hitherto been able to follow the course of 
the war with equanimity, for the two previous sur- 
prise visits of the enemy had been brief and timid, 
and no real harm had befallen them. But now the 
Roundhead soldiers roughly entered and plundered 
their homes, eating their food, drinking their beer, 
terrifying their women and children, and robbing 
them of their money, under the very eye of their 
Lord. Neither did the Castle escape, for the 
enemy surmounted the low wall connecting the 
brick forts on the Packington side, and plundered 
the Manor House, carrying away family documents, 
and pressing the defenders into the Keep. For the 
first time in its existence of nearly two centuries, 
the Great Tower was put to the defensive purpose 
for which the founder designed it, a last refuge in 
the time of stress and storm, and well and truly it 
answered to the test. While the garrison immured 
themselves within the Keep the Roundheads made 
their way to the very windows of the fortress. 
Meanwhile Loughborough pointed guns through 
the embrasures, and in response to his command 
the Old Tower vomited fire. He had realised his 
ability not only to resist attack, but to harass an 
enemy's retreat. On discovering the futility of his 
design Lord Grey ordered a hasty retreat, but 
although the Roundheads retired in confusion 
under Loughborough's fire, they still managed to 
convey a considerable booty to Collorton. 



236 romance of ashby-de-la-zouch castle. 

fortuxe's low ebb. 
The ruinous damage inflicted upon the Castle and 
its defences required immediate attention, draining 
Lord Loughborough's resources. His fortunes had 
truly fallen to a low ebb. The skirmish in Staf- 
fordshire had cost him a hundred men and horses, 
besides an equal number of stands of arms, but the 
two recent attacks on the Castle had inflicted a 
more serious blow, in lowering his military prestige 
by rendering retreat before the enemy a familiar 
experience to his men. Still his reverses had justi- 
fied his pride and confidence in the impregnability 
of the Castle, and in the assurance of a secure base, 
he resolved to prevent demoralisation by delivering 
an immediate attack on Collorton, in the hope of 
recovering his lost horses and arms. But his 
adventure failed, with an additional loss of eighty 
horses. The following week, whilst plundering in 
the neighbourhood of Burton-on-Trent, in company 
with Colonel Bagot, with whom he still maintained 
cordial relations, he encountered Sir John Gell, 
who routed him, capturing 120 of his horses, and 
two days later Sir William Brueton attacked a body 
of his men conducting a drove of cattle to Ashby- 
de-la-Zouch, putting them to flight with the loss of 
six men and horses and the whole herd of cattle. 
The loss of the men did not trouble him, for they 
invariably found their way back to the Castle, but 
the loss of horses and arms was irremediable. 
Besides the continuous successes of the Round- 
heads rendered them exultant. One of their 
pamphlets declares that " Hastings is put on his 
trumps, and plays the after game badly. He has 
made the country poor by robbery and pillage 
without enriching himself. He had hoped to get 
away with a lump of wealth, but his soldiers spend 



DISASTROUS NASEBY. 237 

as fast as lie gets. He only came to Ashby-de-la- 
Zoucli with, three men, and would be glad to get 
away with, as many." 

But the garrulous pamphleteer had misjudged 
his man. Loughborough had laid his all upon the 
altar of his loyalty, and in the days of disaster had 
no mind to flinch. Leaving stout Ben Scudamore 
in charge of the Castle, he had hurried to Oxford 
to second the appeal of Sir John Henderson, the 
besieged Governor of Newark, for relief. The dis- 
tress of ISTewark and Ashby-de-la-Zouch but 
emphasised the depreciation of royal authority in 
the North of England, since the Queen's trium- 
phant supremacy seven months agone. Fairfax 
had inflicted a crushing defeat on Colonel Bellasis 
at Selby, and had proceeded to Nantwich, where he 
had almost annihilated the Irish forces, taking 
1,800 prisoners, a host of oflicers, and the whole of 
the cannon and baggage, and obliging Lord Byron 
to retire to Chester. Byron's retreat had left Lord 
Derby in great straits in Lancashire, necessitating 
his retiral from the neighbourhood of Manchester. 

In Yorkshire the Scottish army watched the 
Marquis, and moved him to look carefully to the 
defences of York. The battle of Selby had resulted 
in a southward movement of Parliamentary troops 
and the investment of Newark, Belvoir Castle, and 
partially of Ashbv-de-la-Zouch Castle, the loss of 
which would have completely blocked communica- 
tion between York and Oxford. 

RELIEF OF NEWARK. 

In the King's dilemma Hupert, who was recruit- 
ing in the West, came to his assistance, and 
planned one of the most brilliant campaigns of the 
war, that dumbfounded his enemies. It was the 



238 ROMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

montli of March — tke frosts were exceedingly 
severe, and the way to Newark was infested with 
Roundheads, but the Prince collected a body of 
dashing horsemen, and set off. In view of the 
uncertain dispositions of the enemy no definite 
route could be settled upon. No cumbrous trans- 
ports were permissible, and food supplies had to be 
collected in rough and ready fashion. Lord 
Loughborough set out from Oxford, accompanied 
by Sir Charles Lucas ; and on his journey encoun- 
tered opposition at Cotes Bridge, near Lough- 
borough, where Sir Edward Hartopp, assisted by 
Lord Grey's regiment, attacked the Royalists, and 
discharged a great piece upon them, which forced 
them to retreat. The Parliamentarians then gained 
the bridge, which was half a mile in length, whilst 
the Royalists remained in a great meadow adjoin- 
ing, drawn up in five bodies, until night, when they 
retreated. 

From Cotes Bridge, Loughborough and Lucas 
made their way to Ashbourne, for John Bright, of 
that town, writing to Fairfax, states " that about 
the end of March, 1644, Colonel Hastings on this 
day came to Ashbourne, and with those forces which 
removed from Bakewell (they are about 1,000 or 
1,200 strong) resolves to march to Chesterfield, 
there to join Colonel Fretchville^ and that strength 
with the forces that are at Doncaster intend to 
raise the siege of Newark. This I have from a 
gentleman who was taken prisoner by them last 
night, and upon some small composition was set at 
liberty, and since gave me this notice." 

The Prince's plan was to gather reinforcements 
at previously arranged places on the route, thus 



DISASTROUS NASEBY. 239 

lessening Lis transports. On combining with 
Loughborougli and Fretcliville, lie made a dask for 
Newark. 

Meanwhile the Roundheads regarded the capture 
of Newark as a foregone conclusion. Sir John 
Meldrum, their leader, anticipated no interference, 
certainly none from the direction of Oxford, and 
accordingly drew his cordon close round the town, 
waiting patiently for famine to reduce the garrison. 
In his great confidence he even neglected to hold 
the approaches, and the Cavaliers had but five 
milestones to pass, when he became aware of their 
approach. Before he could make his depositions 
they were attacking him, for while his soldiers 
were buckling on their sword belts, they could hear 
the ring of horses' hoofs upon the frozen ground. 
The Royalist horse had spread panic in the host of 
4,000 besiegers, when their foot were yet four miles 
distant. The garrison sallied out of the town with 
shouts of joy, and the Roundheads were quickly 
surrounded. Rupert indulged in no unnecessary 
bloodshed. He allowed the surrendered army to 
disband, retaining the arms and baggage. Claren- 
don states that the plunder amounted to 4,000 
stands of arms, eleven brass cannon, two mortars, 
and fifty barrels of gunpowder. 

RAISING SUPPLIES. 

The relief of Newark and Belvoir Castle, and the 
temporary disorganisation of the Rutland, Notting- 
ham, and Leicester Parliamentarian forces, left 
Loughborough free to requisition the districts sur- 
rounding his castle. The revenue of the earldom 
was totally inadequate to nourish the garrison. 
Its continuance depended upon systematic levies, 
which were made under the authority of the Com- 



240 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

mission of Array and in substitution of taxes. 
'' Perfect Occurrences," a contemporary newspaper, 
mentions a copy of the warrant Loughborough 
usually served upon the various parishes. 

" To the Constables of the parish of Seckington, 
these haste, poste haste: — These are to warn you 
that you forthwith upon the sight hereof send in 
what provisions your parish will afford, to the 
garrison of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, for the use of his 
Majesty's army, and if you fail therein you must 
expect to be exposed to the plunder of the hungry 
soldier." 

Warrants were not only served upon parishes, 
but upon private individuals, who manifested 
reluctance to contribute. A letter is extant, 
written by a gentleman who complains that his 
daughter has been compelled to pay a blackmail 
of £100 per annum to Lord Loughborough, to 
enable her to enjoy peacefully the rents of her 
farms. 

A FIGHT AT BOSVTORTH. 

Disregard of Loughborough's warrant led to the 
skirmish at Bosworth in July 1644. According to 
the information contained in a pamphlet : " At a 
distance of 160 years Bosworth field again becamo 
a theatre of war. Fairfax reports that a party of 
Hastings' men were plundering about Hinckley, 
when his noble friend. Lord Grey, being ever ready 
to any opportunity to serve his country, sent out a 
well resolved party, under the command of Captain 
Babington, consisting of eighty good horse. They 
marched towards Bosworth Field, where they over- 
took 120 of Hastings' horse, and there fought with 
them in the very place where King Richard was 
slain. The Royalists were embarrassed by their 



DISASTJROUS NASEBY. 



241 



plunder, and at the first charge fled, our men pur- 
suing them for three miles, killing six, wounding 
some, and taking forty prisoners. I believe, upon 
further examination, there will be found a greater 
number of officers than are here named, for the 
habits and postures of many of the prisoners give 
just cause to suspect their condition to be far above 
common troopers. We have not lost one man. 
Captain Babington is shot in the hand. Sir Edward 
Hartopp is shot in the thigh, and a common soldier 
or two are slightly wounded. We attribute all to 
the Griver of Yictories. The Eoyalists lost a score 
of horses, 100 cattle, besides sheep and other goods. 
The same pamphlet contains an extract from a copy 
of a letter sent from the Lord Fairfax to the Mayor 
of Hull, and by him sent to the Committee of both 
Kingdoms, concerning the great victory of Marston 
Moor, obtained against Prince Rupert, about 
raising the siege of Hull. 

HASTINGS AND THE CLERGY. 

Like a true son of the House of Hastings, Lord 
Loughborough, even amid the alarms of war, by no 
means rebated his interest in religion and its 
established officials, manifesting his sympathy or 
indignation, according to circumstances. During 
the autumn of the previous year. Parliament had 
seen fit to adopt the Solemn League or Covenant of 
Scotland, as a means of consolidating the Scottish 
Alliance against the King, and to enforce it upon 
the clergy, who were not prepared to adopt it with 
enthusiastic unanimity. Perhaps no class of the 
community in the unfoldment of national progress 
has been called upon to swallow objectional 
nostrums more repeatedly than the ecclesias- 
tical order, and has consented more meekly, when 

17 



242 ROMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

the strong liand of tKe law lias insisted. So late as 
February 1644, large numbers of the divines of 
Leicestershire had still procrastinated, causing 
official Puritanism in Leicester to promulgate a 
decree that at the Easter services at St. Martin's 
Church, all county beneficiaries who had hitherto 
held back should attend and take the Covenant 
Vow. This regulation caused a considerable flutter 
in the country manses, and whilst some ministers 
maintained an irreconcilable attitude, others more 
compliant decided to obey. On Easter Eve a 
goodly company started on horseback, clad in bands 
and gowns, for Leicester, but a troop of Lough- 
borough's horsemen met them, and respectfully 
conducted them to the Castle, where they found no 
reason to complain of their host's hospitality 
during Eastertide. 

But where clamorous orthodoxy provoked his 
resentment, the noble cavalier scrupled not to adopt 
more violent measures. One of the latest acts of 
patronage of the Golden Earl had been the pre- 
sentation of the benefice of Loughborough to the 
Eev. Nicholas Hall, B.D., of Emmanuel College, 
Cambridge, a refined and scholarly clergyman of 
congenial views. On the 10th of June, 1643, the 
House of Commons had commanded him to appear 
before its bar for delinquency, and had ejected him, 
substituting the Rev. Oliver Bromskill, a man of 
approved Parliamentary views. Lord Lough- 
borough had from the first resented the deposition 
of his friend, and took care to render his successor's 
life intolerable. At length, deeming that the 
parish would be better served by Mr. Bromskill' s 
involuntary residence at the Castle, he despatched 
a company of troopers to convey him there. A 
party of Hastings' horsemen came to Lough- 



DISASTROUS NASEBY. 243 

borougL. an Lord's T)iij, riding into tlie cliurcli in 
sermon time, and wonld liave pulled the preacher 
out of the pulpit, but the women rescued him, and 
proved themselves more valiant than their hus- 
bands or Hastings' men. The grateful rector 
recorded their providential aftection in the church- 
warden's accounts as a fitting memorial of their 
piety. 

The happy auguries that the sanguine tempera- 
ment of Lord Loughborough had led him to asso- 
ciate with the brilliant campaign for the relief of 
Newark, were doomed to disappointment. From 
that date through the succeeding winter the trend 
of the fighting in Leicestershire proved adverse, 
whilst the disastrous defeat of Rupert at Marston 
Moor liberated Roundhead forces in Yorkshire for 
service in the Midlands. February, 1644 (ne^v 
date) had proved a disastrous month for his arms, 
and JFebruary, 1645, opened with continued diffi- 
culty, whilst February, 1646, may be described as 
the most dismal month of his life, because in its 
early days he was compelled to surrender the 
Castle. 

His letter to Prince Hupert, written on February 
6th, 1645, describes his position, and relates how 
his numerous misfortunes had impoverished his 
armoury. 

APPEAL FOR ARMS. 

■*' May it please your Highness, — 

" Some part of these forces I have the honour to 
command are daily in action, and that with many 
alarms in the consumption of much ammunition. 
If I can make good what I am now master of, til] 
May, I doubt not to appear serviceable to his 
Majesty, but without arms and ammunition I 



244 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

cannot. Two passes I have fortified upon the 
River Trent are now by the rebels straitly 
beseiged, but I fear them not, and am drawing 
what home I have not in Cheshire, to relieve them. 
I hear your Highness intends a journey into those 
parts, and if his Majesty will furnish me with 
some arms and ammunition, which I beseech you 
to move him for, I can leave the garrison here in 
safety, and shall be happy to wait upon your 
Highness' s commands, and make the horse I now 
have there full 1,500 upon ten days' warning. But 
Sir, if his Majesty's service suffer, and I lose my 
reputation for want of what others obtain, I must 
account that my misfortune, though myself happy 
if you still honour me with the title of 

" Your humble and faithful servant, 

" Loughborough." 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 

February 6th, 1644 (old date). 
Having despatched his appeal to the Prince, Lord 
Loughborough resumed his predatory expeditions. 
On February 18th he sent out warrants, under the 
authority of the Commission of Array, for car- 
riages to fetch hay to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, whilst 
the Parliamentarians issued counter warrants on 
behalf of the Collorton garrison. Loughborough, 
however, was too quick for them, compelling the 
countrymen to load hay, which, under a strong 
guard, he proceeded to convey towards Leicester. 
But Colonel Temple, receiving notice of his move- 
ment, obtained a reinforcement of three troops of 
the Derby horse, and intercepting the Royalists, 
after a stubborn fight, routed and pursued them, 
capturing forty prisoners, sixty horses, and the 
whole of the hay. 



DISASTROUS NASEBY. 245 

A week later a party of Ashby men made a deter- 
mined attack on Collorton, hoping to surprise and 
plunder the town, but the attempt failed, and they 
were compelled to retire with an additional loss of 
eighty of their horse. 

THE NASEBY CAMPAIGN. 

But while the Parliamentarian forces at Collor- 
ton daily increased and grew more aggressive, and 
the difficulties of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch garrison 
increased, circumstances urged the Sovereign to 
make that fatal move upon the chess board of war, 
that finally destroyed his chance of winning the 
game. Lying at Oxford, he considered his chance. 
With the exception of one or two castles, his forces 
occupied the whole of Wales ; in the North he had 
garrisons in the Castles of Scarborough, Carlisle, 
and Pontefract, the three strong places of the Mid- 
lands were harassed by northern Parliamentarian 
forces, while south of his headquarters the ever 
active Cromwell had dashed across Oxfordshire, 
leaving a red trail of blood at Hislip Bridge, Bletch- 
ington House, and Radcot Bridge. At length the 
King marched northward, ostensively to relieve 
Chester, expecting Fairfax to follow him, but that 
general advanced to Oxford, with the view of taking 
the city. The intelligence of the royal advance 
relieved Chester automatically, and the King 
gravely considered a project of marching north- 
ward to join Montrose, which, however, he reluc- 
tantly abandoned, owing to the presence of the 
Scotch army in Yorkshire. He, therefore, sud- 
denly marched into Leicestershire. For two years 
Loughborough had urged the plunder of Leicester, 
assuring both the King and the Prince that its 
defences were despicable, and its wealth consider- 



246 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

able. He now pressed liis scheme witk renewed 
vigour, and his Majesty consented. The Royal 
army swept over Staffordshire and Derbyshire, like 
a plague of locusts, leaving everywhere in its wake 
desolation and distress. 

A letter published in " Perfect Occurrences " 
describes the terrors attending its advance. 
" Sir,— 

" Lichfield forces being about 300 horse and foot 
did lately in the night attempt to plunder Notting- 
ham. They entered the town, and fell to plunder- 
ing, but we beat them back with shame and loss. 
On the present day Rupert and Maurice, with about 
2,000 horse and foot, came into Burton-on-Trent. 
Rupert quartered at Mr. Clarke's house, a clothier, 
and Maurice at Appleby's, a butcher. This day 
there came a party of horse to Seckington, two 
miles from Tamworth, to take up quarters for the 
King's forces ; the parishioners and some of the 
adjacent villages gave the quartermaster, as they 
agreed, <£5, that they should not be troubled neither 
for quarter money nor be plundered ; yet so cruel 
and faithless are their promises, for no sooner were 
they quartered at a town near thereunto but war- 
rants were sent out." 

THE king's ITINERARY. 

A consideration of the King's itinerary during 
the days of Whit-week reveals how influentially 
Lord Loughborough's constant attendance upon 
him affected the details of his Majesty's plan of 
campaign. On Whit Sunday and Monday Lough- 
borough entertained the King at Tutbury Castle, 
the army meanwhile resting at Burton-on-Trent, 
and on Tuesday his Majesty visited Ashby-de-la- 
Zouch, attended by Loughborough, sleeping at the 



DISASTROUS NASEBY. 



247 



Castle. On Wednesday, riding proudly through 
Collorton, he took up his quarters for the night at 
Sir Harry Shipworth's mansion at Coates, and on 
Thursday he slept at Elstone, where the army 
rested two days, preparatory to the storming ot 

TiPi pester. 

The Committee for Leicester made diligent pre- 
parations to resist a Royalist assault. The line ot 
defences, three miles in length, that encircled the 
town, was repaired; cannon were sent Irom 
London ; the tradesmen were ordered to close their 
shops; and the Mayor made out a list of about 
1,000 men capable of bearing arms. Besides these, 
the garrison numbered about 1,200 regular troops 
and 150 recruits from the country. The governor- 
ship was held by Colonel Grey. 

STORMING OF LEICESTER. 

On May 29th, the Royal army, consisting of 
6 000 men, approached the town in three divisions. 
The King established his tent in the meadows out- 
side the Newark Fort, surrounding himself by his 
foot guards. The Prince's black colliers mounted 
a battery before the Newark Tower, assisted by 
Loughborough's Blue Coats, and the firelocks com- 
manded by Colonel John Russell. Colonel Tertia s 
troops, with ladders and ropes, stationed themselves 
before the drawbridge, and Sir Bernard lertia 
drew up his men near the Abbey mansion, while 
the Earl of Northampton's dragoons waited an 
opening to enter the to^Ti. Early in the afternoon 
of the 30th, Prince Rupert hurled two cannon balls 
into Leicester, after which he sent a trumpet to the 
fort promising pardon to the Mayor and Corpora- 
tion, in the event of surrender, and ^^^P^^'^sf ^^^^^"^^^^ 
fact that the King's army now numbered 10,000. 



248 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOIJCH CASTLE. 

The trumpeter was detained an hour, and uncertain 
of liis fate, the Prince opened his batteries on the 
walls, pounding them with dull, monotonous thud. 
During the bombardment the herald returned with 
a defiant message. Meanwhile an incident occurred 
that accentuated the Prince's anger. His Majesty- 
was dining in the meadows, and this becoming 
known to the burghers, a man named Dent, the 
tenant of the Castle mills, who had learnt artillery 
practice in the Eoundhead army, and been pro- 
moted to the rank of a chief gunner, pointed a field 
piece at the Royal tent, and succeeded in landing 
a ball, the wreckage produced by which knocked 
off his Majestj^'s hat. 

About two o'clock a town trumpet appeared with 
a request for a truce until Sunday, to give the Com- 
mittee leisure for deliberation, a suggestion the 
Prince abruptly rejected, seeing that the town was 
already doomed. He angrily commanded the rebel 
to be gone, or he would lay him by the heels. In 
half an hour the herald returned with his former 
message, and the disgusted Prince at once handed 
him over to the tender mercies of his Provost 
Marshal. 

A BREACH IN THE WALL. 

At three o'clock the Royal batteries opened a 
murderous bombardment, which continued until 
seven o'clock in the evening. Then a great cheer 
arose in the Royalist ranks, for the Prince's guns 
had at length accomplished their task. Amid the 
clouds of smoke and dust a wide breach yawned in 
the wall, and the word was passed from troop to 
troop to prepare for an immediate assault. But 
the indomitable defenders were seen to be dragging 
three great Spanish cannon to a position that com- 



DISASTROUS NASEBY. 249 

manded the breach, and it became apparent that the 
assault must be postponed until the guns had been 
dismantled. The bombardment recommenced. In 
the breach, and on the hill the townsmen dropped 
at their work. Until midnight and long after- 
wards, the thunders of men's hate made noncom- 
batant residents shudder. At length Eupert, peer- 
ing through the darkness, gave the word for an 
advance. Colonel Leslie rushed forward to meet 
a resistance so resolute as to send him reeling back- 
ward. At any cost of human life the breach must 
be carried. His Majesty hurried to the spot to 
watch the struggle, ordering his red footguards to 
reinforce Leslie. In the meantime, the Royalists 
had hurled hand grenades at the hornwork defences 
before Belgrave Gate, until the defenders retired in 
confusion. Clambering over the hornwork, they 
let down the drawbridge for the admission of Lord 
Northampton's dragoons. Xo defence, however 
obstinate, could now avail, for the dragoons were 
galloping madly through the streets, pistolling and 
hacking all persons they encountered, and from 
every side of the town angry assailants were follow- 
ing. No human authority, royal or military, could 
stem the awful tide of murder and pillage. Half 
a hundred dead lay outside the breach, and as m.any 
within. In every street mute corpses lay upon the 
ground. Never in its history had Leicester wit- 
nessed such a sight. The death roll eventually 
numbered upwards of 700. Undoubtedly the rash 
obstinacy of the townsmen provoked needless 
slaughter. The Committee still occupied a house 
in the Market Place. As the soldiers crowded into 
the square some imprudent and over zealous citi- 
zens fired at them from the windows of a house, 
killing eight dragoons, and wounding some others. 



250 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

This incicleut aroused bitter resentment. The 
Royalists beat in the door of the house and put 
every occupant to the sword. A rumour resulted 
that passed from lip to lip, and spread through the 
country that the Committee had been slaughtered 
in cold blood. A number of defenders sought 
refuge in the Xewark fort, who repeatedly prevari- 
cated with the King's clemency, drawing upon 
themselves when they actually surrendered the 
buffets of the victors, but quarter was granted. 

THE king's grief. 

The King's personal behaviour during the Friday 
midnight and Saturday commands respect. Hum- 
phrey Brown's oath before Bradshaw, at his 
Majesty's trial, that he heard the King declare, as 
he stood watching the maiming of some prisoners 
without reproof, "I do not care if they cut them 
more, for they are mine enemies," does not accord 
with his known character, and may be dismissed 
as a perjury. 

Clad in glittering armour, he passed from post to 
post. Through the hideous night he did not sleep. 
Rupert constantly burst into fits of passion, but he 
remained calm, never giving way to angry or 
vengeful feeling; and commiserating the suffer- 
ings of the townspeople. 

The Rev. William Bickers has recorded a tradi- 
tion that lingered to his own day in his mother's 
family, that Charles rode about in absolute distress 
during the storming operations, and continuously 
cried : '' Dear and loving subjects, cry quarter.'^ 
Immediately upon the establishment of his 
authority in the town he took up his quarters at the 
Abbey mansion. He appointed Lord Lough- 
borough to be governor of Leicester, as successor to 



DISASTROUS NASEBY. 251 

the deposed Roundhead Grey, who lay sorely 
wounded in a house in the Market Place. The 
governorship may he regarded as the most impor- 
tant commission hitherto entrusted to Hastings, 
and he accepted it with the intention of fortifying 
the town, as he had already fortified the Castle of 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch. The King stayed two days at 
Leicester, for the purpose of exacting a levy of 
£2,000 from the Corporation. On June 2nd, after 
assigning 1,200 men to the Governor for the repair 
and defence of the fortifications, he left the town. 
He had no sooner gone than Hastings proceeded to 
burn down the Abbey Mansions as an expression 
of his dislike for the Cavendish family. The 
course of events allowed him little opportunity to 
make good the defences of the town, for on the 
14th of June his Majesty engaged the forces of 
Cromwell and Fairfax at Naseby, and received a 
defeat that crushed his cause. On the evening 
of that day, to the surprise and consternation of 
the Governor, Charles galloped up to the gates of 
Leicester a fugitive, and accompanied by a body 
of horse in a wild rout. Tradition indicates the 
route from Naseby to Leicester. 

THE FLIGHT FROM NASEBY. 

At Turlington the villagers point out to 
strangers a spring just off the road, where they 
state that his Majesty stopped to drink and water 
his horse. From thence he proceeded through 
Kibsworth, Oadby, and down the London Road. 
Sir John Gell, with his forces, was in the neigh- 
bourhood of his retreat, and might have intercepted 
him, but failed to do so, a neglect that afterwards 
drew upon him the severe censure of Parliament. 
Fairfax and Cromwell pursued to the neighbour- 



252 ROMAXCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

hood of Leicester, but returned to Market Har- 
borough to spend the night, and write despatches. 
It is said that the King rode through Leicester 
without drawing rein. Declining the highway by 
Bradgate, he took the less frequented by-lanes to 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch. A story of an old man who 
died in 1818, who remembered his grandfather 
speaking of the King riding through Hugglescote, 
on his flight from Naseby, with a party of horse, 
is recorded in one of the County histories. 

They drew rein at an inn kept by Robert Hall, 
who combined the occupation of farrier. It was 
probably the " Three Horse Shoes." The troopers 
formed in a line before the inn door, calling loudly 
for refreshment. The evening was wet and close, 
and they had ridden far and long, over muddy 
and ill-kept roads. A servant maid brought out 
ale in milk pails, which were carried down the line 
for the mounted horsemen to help themselves with 

An officer left the company and made his way 
to the smithy. The farrier, in lifting the horse's 
foot to examine the faulty shoe, noticed the royal 
arms and initials stamped upon it, and suspected 
the officer to be the King. Lifting his head, he 
inquired of the rider whether he had the honour 
of shoeing his Majesty's horse. Whereupon he 
assented and informed him that he himself was 
the King. On hearing this the farrier fell upon 
his knees, but his Majesty bade him rise and shoe 
the horse well, speaking affably and graciously to 
him. When he had performed his task the whole 
party rode up as if pursued. They had, how- 
ever, no cause for fear. Only a short gallop of 
six miles separated them from the security of 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch. The rain fell steadilv, their 



DISASTROUS NASEBY. 253 

cloaks were sodden, their horses covered with mud 
and foam, for in many places their feet sank to 
the fetlocks, but they passed swiftly through the 
villages of Heather and Normanton, while the 
astonished rustics stood at the open doors of their 
cottages to gaze and comment on the tragedy of 
defeated and fugitive Majesty. 

" Towards night on that dismal Saturday they 
reached Ashby-de-la-Zouch, for they had left 
running." 

THE LAST ROYAL VISIT. 

It was the King's last visit to the Castle, and 
although his flag fluttered proudly on the keep, 
no member of the family met him with loyal words 
of welcome at the great gateway. Only memories 
of happier times flitted across his mind, as he sat 
lonely and depressed bp the wide fireplace in the 
Earl's private chamber. Such memories covered 
the whole period of his life, his boyish visit on his 
way from Edinburgh to London to a new and 
strange home, and his later visits first with his 
father King James, and afterwards with his 
queenly consort, who had again left him to never 
more rejoin him, unless in the Eternal City, where 
every citizen is royal. The Castle had been the 
last stage of his grandmother, the sad-hearted 
Queen of Scots, on her journey to the scaffold. It 
was a stage of his own journey to the same doom. 
But what loneliness reigned in the fortress. The 
familiar friends of other days were dead. The 
Golden Earl, the gracious Countess, and the vener- 
able rector had passed into the mysterious 
unknown. The sole surviving member of the 
family whose presence could have brought a flush 
of pleasure to his pale cheek, the indomitable 



254 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

LoTigliborough, was at Leicester succouring his 
fugitive soldiers and breasting the victorious pro- 
gress of his enemies. Only the haunting memories 
of the past visited him in his solitude during his 
last night at Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle. About 
ten of the clock on the following morning he left 
the Castle, having rested ten hours, and while the 
bells of St. Helen's Church chimed their melodious 
invitation to the House of Prayer, he rode towards 
Lichfield. 



T 



SURRENDER OF THE CASTLE. 
CHAPTER XII. 

JUNE, 1645, TO FEBRUARY, 1646 (old date). 

HE flight of the general body of the royal army 
from Naseby does not appear to have been so 
confused as the Parliamentary leaders asserted in 
their despatches. Leicester is no great distance 
from the scene of the conflict, and offered a ready 
shelter for the defeated Royalists. Cromwell, 
intent upon securing the person of his Majesty, 
pursued to the vicinity of the town, but detached 
bodies of Cavaliers, adopting various routes, not 
only effected a successful retreat, but assisted the 
foot, and conveyed large numbers of wounded. 
The Leicester fortifications afforded an effective 
temporary barrier to the Roundhead pursuit. 
While the south-eastern district from the battle- 
field lay at the mercy of the victorious cavalry, as 
far as they were able to traverse it, the country 
stretching beyond to the west in the direction of 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Lichfield remained open 
and safe. The battle occurred on the Saturday, 
and until the following Wednesday Lord Lough- 
borough retained possession of Leicester, with the 
object of furthering the dispersal of the Cavaliers. 



256 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

Thomas Thorsby, on hearing the news at his farm 
at Ansty, had sufficient time to harness his teams 
to his wagons, and reach Leicester early enough to 
render effective service, in conveying the wounded 
to places of security. 

The victorious Eoundheads spent the Sabbath in 
religious exercises and preparations for the re- 
duction of Leicester on the following day. 

SURREXDEB, OF LEICESTER. 

On Monday, the 16th of June, Cromwell, 
appearing at the gates, summoned Lord Lough- 
borough to surrender, and received a deJ&ant 
answer. The Roundheads were fully informed of 
the difficulties of his position, whilst he himself 
plainly intended to retain possession as long as 
possible in the interests of the army. But during 
the day Fairfax arrived, and immediately in- 
structed his gunners to erect a formidable battery 
for the bombardment of the defences, upon which 
the Grovernor sent a trumpeter, with letters offering 
to open negotiations for capitulation. 

He was afterwards censured by his own party 
for surrendering the town. While no royalista 
impugned his personal honour and courage, many 
condemned his action as injurious to his Majesty's 
interest. But a consideration of the circumstances 
of his position raises the question whether there 
was any possibility of a successful resistance. The 
late Parliamentary garrison of greater numerical 
strength than his own, and assisted by a sturdy 
and resolute populace, had utterly failed to resist 
the royalist assault when the fortifications were 
intact. 

They were now but partially repaired. The 
force assigned to Hastings by the King, numbering 



SURREXDER OF THE CASTLE. 257 

1,200 men, had already proved barely sufficient 
during the past fortnight to overawe the unfriendly 
roundhead population. In the event of a siege, 
great difficulty would have arisen from within. 
Public opinion in the borough revolted at the mere 
thought of a second assault. Thousands yet 
suffered the immediate pangs of bereavement. 
The terrible prospect of a second bombardment, 
and of a second assault under the command of 
Cromwell, blanched the faces of the puritans them- 
selves. This sentiment the City Fathers, in their 
representative capacity, urged upon Hastings with 
all the weight of their official position. The 
Governor had fully informed himself of the 
disastrous character of the recent defeat. He had 
witnessed the King's hurried flight; he had 
questioned fugitive officers and men ; and had 
received full reports from his own Blue Coats, who 
participated in the conflict; and after summing 
up the evidence he yielded to the Humanitarian 
appeal. 

HUMILIATION. 

Throughout the whole of Tuesday the negotia- 
tions proceeded. The terms conceded by the 
roundheads were not generous, but humiliating, 
the meagre privilege of withdrawal from the town. 
At the surrender of the Parliamentary garrison of 
Lichfield, Lord Loughborough had strained his 
plenipotentiary aiithority, to mark his appreciation 
of the valour of a resolute opponent; but the 
farmer of St. Ives had no mind to spare the self- 
respect of the high-born Cavalier of Ashby-de-la- 
Zouch. On the following morning he surrendered 
the keys of the town, and marched out of Leicester 
at the head of his soldiers. Officers and men had 
been deprived of their arms, and allowed to carry 
18 



258 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

their staves only. At Ashby-de-la-Zoucli the 
company divided into two portions, those who did 
not belong to the garrison of the Castle continuing 
their journey to Lichfield. 

Reviewing the position of affairs at Ashby-de-la- 
Zouch, Lord Loughborough found little cause for 
encouragement. It is true that Newark, Belvoir, 
and Tutbury still stood for the royal cause, and his 
Majesty himself lingered at Lichfield. But under 
the changed conditions of the war these strong 
places, like his own Castle, had become as sandhills 
in the path of the incoming tide. The fateful 
defeat at Naseby had annihilated the Cavaliers in 
the Midlands and the North. For the immediate 
future he had no pressing misgivings. So long as 
he could provision his fortress he could hold it in 
the King's name. He had an ample force for 
defensive purposes, and thanks to the plunder of 
Leicester, he had a good store of both arms and 
provisions ; but the inundation of Leicestershire 
with roundheads threatened to prevent the levying 
of future requisitions. 

CROMVTELL AT COLLORTON. 

He had also certain information of Cromwell 
and Needham's advance towards Ashby-de-la- 
Zouch. On Friday, watching Collorton from the 
keep, he noticed an unusual activity amongst the 
troops. Cromwell had arrived there for recon- 
noitring purposes, and now gazed upon the famous 
towers of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. He had complained 
two years previously that the Castle stuck with 
my Lord Grey of Groby, preventing him, in the 
interests of Leicester town, from keeping his 
rendezvous, and declaring that for his part he 
would rather see the whole Puritan population of 
Leicester wiped off the face of the earth, than the 



SURBENDER OF THE CASTLE. 259 

cause suffer. Yet as tlie royal standard floated 
proudly and defiantly in the June breezes before 
his eyes, lie realised bis inability to haul it down ; 
as with Lord Grey, so with himself, it stuck, and 
he turned his charger reluctantly back towards 
Leicester, leaving the task of subjugation to other 
hands. After his departure no further attempt 
was made to invest the Castle for some months. 
General Fairfax committed the Governorship of 
Leicester to Colonel Needham, with instructions 
to watch the Castle garrison, and maintain the 
blockade on the Collorton side. 

HASTINGS AND BAGOT. 

Lord Loughborough now determined to carry 
out a project, that had remained uppermost in his 
mind, since his brief and inconclusive interview 
with the King, on his flight from Naseby. He 
would wait upon his Majesty at Lichfield, and 
ascertain his personal wishes. Committing the 
defence of the Castle to his friend Colonel Perkins 
he hastened to the Royal Court. At Lichfield he 
found his former friend and recent opponent, 
Colonel Bagot, dying in the Close from a wound 
received at Naseby, a shattered bone in the arm, 
the treatment of which baffled the surgical skill 
of the period. The dispute between the two 
valorous soldiers had agitated royalists' circles 
for some months. Honest Sir Jacob Astley, always 
outspoken, had written of it. " In all places 
where I come, it is my misfortune to meet with 
extreme trouble. I have met in Lichfield ex- 
ceeding great trouble, the Commander and 
Soldiers in the Close having shut out my Lord 
Loughborough." Sir Jacob endeavoured and 
failed to pacify the disputants, and after Colonel 
Bagot's death, Eupert, seeking to sustain the 



260 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

Bagot faction, called upon himself tlie King's 
rebuke, Lis Majesty manifestly sympathising with 
Loughborough. The quarrel was plainly attribut- 
able to incompatibility of temperament, and excess 
of zeal on each rival's part, to distinguish himself 
in the King's service, for Loughborough lucidly 
informed Prince Rupert " that they were each too 
high to acknowledge a superiority." It is to be 
hoped at the last a reconciliation took place in the 
death chamber, for both were noble, and the 
presence of death dissipates anger. The sorrow- 
ful King, his hair beginning to tinge with grey, 
took a pathetic interest in his suffering follower, 
visiting his sick chamber, sitting by his bedside, 
and speaking comforting words to him. 

A MALIGN AXT's DEATH. 

All Lichfield mourned his approaching decease. 
When the end came, he had just time to partake 
of the Lord's Sacrament, and sank upon his pillow, 
murmuring in a low voice, " Lord Jesus, forgive my 
sins ; wash me thoroughly with thy Precious 
Blood ; have mercy upon m.j friends and country ; 
bless and preserve the King, Amen." So died a 
Cavalier and a Malignant, at the early age of 27. 
In the Cathedral his monument of black marble 
may be seen, near Bishop Hacket's tomb, but even 
into God's house men carried the bitter animosity 
of the restoration period. 

" Near this spot lieth 
Richard Bagot, 
youngest son of Sir Harvey Bagot, who, during the 
raging of the late rebellion of the fanatics, being 
Governor of this fortress, was mortally wounded 
when bravely fighting in the fatal 
Field of Naseby. 



SURREXDER OF THE CASTLE. 261 

He died without issue on the seventh day of July, 
1645." 

THE PLAGUE AT ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH. 

From the solemn scene at Lichfield, Lough- 
borough returned to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, to battle 
with a more relentless foe than the victorious 
Roundheads, for at the end of August the plague 
broke out in the Castle, and the town. The crowd- 
ing of a uniform garrison of 500 men, in and around 
the fortress, for a period of nearly three years, 
without attention to the decency and cleanliness 
essential for the maintenance of healthy living, 
and in an age of primitive sanitation, produced the 
epidemic. Extemporised slaughter-houses all over 
the town had poured continuous streams of blood 
and refuse into the streets, without any attempt 
being made to convey them away. Horses and 
cattle had been stalled in every available building. 
Purple spots and large ulcers developed upon the 
persons of the stricken, and death quickly super- 
vened. The sickness prevailed for some weeks, 
devastating the population both of the Castle and 
the town. Many of the troopers deserted the 
Castle, but the social habits of English life of the 
seventeenth century discouraged nomadism, and in 
consequence, the great majority remained. But 
the infection spread from the afflicted to the able- 
bodied, who voluntarily tended them, until it 
became necessary to bury the dead hurriedly in 
pits. A black panic of horror and desolation 
reigned at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, preventing the corn 
markets, and causing garrison and townspeople 
alike to depend upon the stored provisions of the 
Castle. From the Roundheads the Castle suffered 
no molestation. They retired from CoUorton to 
Leicester. 



262 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOCJCH CASTLE. 
THE LAST FIGHT. 

By the end of October, however, the plague 
spent itself, and Loughborough bestirred himself 
to collect reinforcements, until he raised the 
number of his fighting men to his normal strength. 
Proceeding to revictual the Castle, he now dis- 
covered the necessity for extreme prudence, for the 
field of operations had become painfully restricted, 
and in every direction enemies of superior strength 
were alert to lead him into a trap. Nevertheless 
he achieved the last successful expedition of the 
siege. The garrison of Belvoir Castle had fallen 
into a condition of dire distress, and was suffering 
acutely from scarcity of water, the beleaguering 
force having diverted the supply. The Committee 
of both Kingdoms, desiring to bring the siege to a 
successful termination, had petitioned Parliament 
to supply a huge mortar from E-eading, to be used 
with that design. '' On January 15th, 1646, 
by word of Parliament the mortar piece, with 
shells and equipage thereunto belonging at Read- 
ing, was sent to Belvoir Castle to be made use of for 
the reducing of that Castle, for which the sum of 
£350 was ordered to be spent. This added rein- 
forcement did not reach its destination, for on the 
19th of January, Colonel Hastings, with his Ashby- 
de-la-Zouch horse, surprised a convoy of Parlia- 
mentarians going to Belvoir Castle with the mortar 
piece and grenades." Loughborough conveyed the 
mortar piece to Ashby-de-la-Zouch. It was his 
last service to Belvoir. He could extend to the 
garrison there no longer his active protection, and 
it surrendered on February 3rd. 

The capture of the mortar stirred the Parliamen- 
tary forces in Leicestershire to renewed activity. 
The fear of carrying the plague to Leicester had 



SITRRENDER OF THE CASTLE. 263 

caused Colonel Needham to utterly suspend hos- 
tile demonstrations, and to forbid liis troopers to 
approach the neighbourhood of Ashby-de-la- 
Zouch. So entirely was he ignorant of the state of 
affairs in the plague-stricken town that the news 
of the convoy affair was his first intimation of the 
disappearance of the plague. But the affair had 
also roused the Committee of both Kingdoms, 
who at once forwarded imperative instructions to 
their commander before Belvoir, and to Colonel 
Needham, to take immediate and resolute steps for 
the reduction of both castles. 

A MIDNIGHT RAID. 

In fulfilment of these instructions, Needham 
organised a reconnoitring party of horse at 
Leicester, under the command of Major Meeres, 
and ordered it to proceed to Ashby-de-la-Zouch. 
It started from Leicester at nine o'clock in the 
evening of the 3rd of February, proceeding in the 
darkness along the Bradgate highway. The 
thought of possible dangers, of ambuscades, of the 
plague, and the oppressive darkness, appealed to 
the superstitious horsemen, and kept them in com- 
pact formation. But they reached the turnpike 
outside Ashby-de-la-Zouch without misadventure 
about eleven of the clock. Coming silently and 
suddenly upon Loughborough's sentinels, they sur- 
prised and captured them. Then they rode into 
the silent toT\Ti. The lights were extinguished, 
and the townspeople had retired for the night. In 
the great fortress all appeared quiet, but the 
Roundheads avoided it. Knocking up the leading 
townspeople, they quickly plundered them, search- 
ing their stables. They collected one hundred 
horses, half of which were saddled, nearly all Lord 



264 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

LoughborougL's mounts, together with a quantity 
of arms. In some of the houses they found 
prisoners, under guards, countrymen who had been 
arrested and detained for ransom. These unfortu- 
nates they liberated. During their operations the 
garrison made no demonstration of resistance, and 
when they had completed their task the Round- 
heads returned in the darkness to Leicester. 

In truth the weary Lord of the Castle had decided 
that a protraction of the defence would incur a 
wanton sacrifice of life and property, without 
accomplishing any useful purpose. Messengers 
had already informed him of the surrender of Bel- 
voir Castle, and he was aware that Colonel Needham 
awaited only positive information of the disappear- 
ance of the plague to advance against the Castle 
with an army reinforced by the captors of Belvoir 
Castle, and provided with sufficient effective siege 
artillery. His provisions were exhausted, and the 
whole neighbourhood from which he had hitherto 
drawn supplies was impoverished. But the most 
dismal consideration that formed a factor of his 
meditation was the consciousness that the* Royalist 
cause as a military power no longer existed in the 
Midlands and the North. 

CAPITULATION. 

Major Meeres returned to Leicester with a report 
that the garrison had reached the limit of endur- 
ance, on receiving which Colonel Needham pro- 
ceeded to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, where Lord Lough- 
borough replied to his summons by an offer to 
capitulate on honourable terms. In the negotia- 
tions between the two commanders. Colonel 
Needham reciprocated the chivalrous motives of 
the defeated Cavalier. He was the representative 



SURRENDER OF THE CASTLE. 265 

of General Fairfax, and in his official capacity and 
private conduct refrained from raising humiliating 
conditions, but he rather frankly and fully recog- 
nised the gallant fight his defeated opponent had 
made. The conditions under which Loughborough 
surrendered are as follows: — 

" Articles of rendition of the King's garrison of 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, made between Colonel General 
Hastings and Colonel Needham, Governor of 
Leicester. Imprimis, that all the officers and sol- 
diers now at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and under the 
command of Colonel General Hastings, and that all 
over and above the number herein specified shall 
on Monday next, after the signing hereof, being 
the 2nd day of March, depart and quit the garrison, 
and march away without further stay or con- 
tinuance. 

Item : That upon the Tuesday following, Colonel 
General Hastings shall begin to slight the works 
and fortifications of the town and garrison of 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and to that end shall endeavour 
and procure assistance from the county as well as 
receive all such as be sent to that purpose, and not 
forbear until the whole be slighted and unfortified. 

Item : That at the end of three months hereafter 
specified. Colonel General Hastings shall deliver 
up Ashby-de-la-Zouch House itself, being now a 
garrison of the King's, into the hands of his brother, 
the Earl of Huntingdon. 

Item : That sufficient hostages, and such as shall 
be thought fit by Colonel Needham, shall be given 
for the safe return of any convoy that shall be 
granted to him. 

Item : That Colonel General Hastings, with his 
officers, gentlemen, and soldiers, shall have liberty 
of their pleasure to march away to Bridgenorth, 



266 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

with their arms, horses, and ammTinition, bag and 
baggage, trumpets sounding, drums beating, 
colours flying, matches lighted on both ends, 
muskets loaded, with brass gun and a case of sacks 
in boxes, and have sufficient carriage allowed them, 
and six days' liberty for their passage. 

Item : That Colonel General Hastings, his officers 
and gentlemen, and also all manner of persons, as 
well soldiers as others, and that are now members 
of that garrison, and now belonging to it, shall have 
liberty to lay down their arms and have protection 
to live at home, if they please, they submitting to 
all ordinances of Parliament. 

Item : That all the sequestrations of Colonel 
General Hastings, the Earl, and Colonel Perkins, 
Governor of Ashby-de-la-Zouch House, be taken 
off, upon the slighting of Ashby-de-la-Zouch 
House. 

Item : That Sir Eichard Skeffington and Colonel 
Keedham shall have liberty and power to compound 
for the estates of such officers and gentlemen in the 
list given in; whether of Leicestershire, Derby- 
shire, oS'ottinghamshire, Staffordshire, or Warwick- 
shire, or as. many as they shall think fit of them to 
compound with, for their estates. 

Item : That Colonel General Hastings, with the 
said gentlemen, and their servants that desire to 
stay with him, not exceeding the number of 100, 
may have free liberty to stay at Ashby-de-la-Zouch 
for three months after the signing of these articles, 
and not to be molested during the said term for any 
debts or engagements, or otherwise, by any of the 
Parliament's party, they doing nothing prejudicial 
to Parliament. 

Item : That Colonel General Hastings, and the 
said gentlemen, with their servants and horses, not 



SIIRRENDER OF THE CASTLE. 267 

exceeding in number of horse 150, shall have a 
sufficient convoy and pass to Hull or Bristol, and 
therefrom by order of Parliament to have a ship 
provided to transport them to France or Holland, 
whither they please. 

Signed the 28th day of February, 1646. 

Henry Loughborough. 

John Needham." 

waiting and watching. 

Lord Loughborough lingered at Ashby-de-la- 
Zouch during the full limit of three months granted 
him by the articles of rendition, enjoying with his 
household of 100 followers complete protection 
from molestation, and personal freedom. Although 
the ban of impeachment had been pronounced in 
the early months of the war against him, yet the 
same articles, ratified by Parliament, accorded to 
him if he chose to avail himself of the privilege, 
the right to settle down in private life, free from all 
penalties, on condition that he should abstain from 
active opposition to Parliamentary domination. 
In official circles, such a promise from him would 
have been received with satisfaction, for at the 
period of the capitulation, and later, when he placed 
himself in graver circumstances of peril by actively 
assisting in the defence of Colchester, the Indepen- 
dent section of the Puritan party persistently pro- 
tected him, going to the length of declaring when 
he was a prisoner at Windsor Castle, after the sur- 
render at Colchester, that any official design against 
his life would be injurious to the interests of the 
nation. At Ashby-de-la-Zouch he waited, hoping 
that some change in the state of affairs might yet 



268 ROMANCE OF ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH CASTLE. 

enable him again to hoist the King's standard upon 
the flag-staff of the Keep. He made no serious 
move to slight the Castle, it was scarcely likely 
that he would; indeed, the hope of saving the 
home of his ancestors had been one of the strongest 
inducements that prompted him to stipulate for a 
personal occupation for three months after the 
capitulation. But by the end of April it became 
known to him that the King had actually decided 
to give himself up to the Scots ; accordingly on May 
18th, accompanied by Sir Aston Cockayne, and a 
company of gentlemen and retainers, with drums 
beating, colours flying, and matches burning, he 
marched out of the town. 

The Parliament utilised the fortress for the 
incarceration of State prisoners captured at the 
battle of Worcester, chief of whom was the Duke of 
Hamilton, appointing Loughborough's old enemy, 
Lord Grey of Groby, to be Governor. Probably it 
would have been spared depletion but for the 
clamorous agitation of middle class Puritanism, 
through whose efforts the House of Commons 
appointed a Committee to sit at Leicester on 
Isovember 28th, 1648, for deliberation on the 
matter. The Committee decided that Ashby-de-la- 
Zouch Castle should be immediately slighted and 
made untenable, and that James, Earl of Cam- 
bridge, then a prisoner in the Castle, should be sent 
to Windsor. Care was taken on this occasion that 
the commission to cany out the design should not 
again be entrusted to unwilling hands, not to the 
Governor of Leicester or any Government official, 
military or civil, but to one of themselves, a stern 
and unflinching Revolutionist, William Bainbrigg 
of Lockington, in the County of Leicester. 



SURRENDER OF THE CASTLE. 269 

DEPLETION. 

William Bainbrigg forthwith proceeded to 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, where he established his head- 
quarters at the Bull's Head Inn. An examination 
of an engraving of the Castle, published in 1730, 
shows that he erected his battery on the high 
ground between Packington and Ashby-de-la- 
Zouch, pointing his guns chiefly at the famous 
Keep, and destroying the whole of it on that side. 
The Chapel, the Earl's quarters, the Queen of Scots 
apartments, and the kitchens suffered little injury, 
but the Great Gate Way, the outer circle of the 
fortifications, and the brick forts crumbled before 
his bombardment. 

When Bainbrigg returned to Leicester he left 
the Fortress an untenable wreckage, the storms and 
neglect of a quarter of a millenium have contri- 
buted to the decay, and the wear and tear of two 
future centuries may complete the ruin, but the 
story of the illustrious lords who lived and ruled 
within its walls is a contribution to the national 
history of the English race that must abide. 



The "Journal" Press, 
Birmingham. 



p 17 ^903 



